


Dream a Dream

by mad_fairy



Series: Mischief's Heir [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Dark Magic, F/M, Magical Science, scientific magic, thousand year old murder mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-19 11:06:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 70,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4744052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mad_fairy/pseuds/mad_fairy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new school year begins.  The Explorer's club expands on their plans--but school keeps getting in the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. School Daze

**Author's Note:**

> Well, the last school year is at an end, and a new begins. If there's something you like (or hate) leave comments please. I like knowing what works for people and what doesn't. The rest of this that I have written so far requires some editing as I'm posting it. If there are storylines everyone really hates, that will likely influence some of my editing choices. Anyway, Here's part II. Enjoy!

"I hereby call this, the first meeting of the reunited Explorer's club to order. So, everyone, how were your summers?" Harry asked cheerfully. 

The whole group was gathered in the dining car--which Harry, Ron and Neville hadn't even realized the train had. They were all crammed together into a horseshoe-shaped booth, nibbling on breakfast pastries and drinking tea. The car was empty for the moment. No one really started drifting this way until lunch time, which made it perfect for their use.

"Ours was great. We made a nice sum of galleons on our summer jobs." Ron bragged. 

He was sporting a new wand, one purchased just for him, rather than his brother Charlie's old one which he'd been using since he'd started school. 

"You were going over the tombs that had already been cleared to see if anything had been missed, right?" Neville asked.

"Yeah. We found a couple of things in each of them..."  
"...and so they had us do surveys of the tombs in the area they hadn't touched yet as well." the twins agreed.  
"Your whole geological survey charms that you made..."  
"...have been a boon to them."  
"They said we made their jobs both safer"  
"and easier, since they won't be going in blind."

"Oh. Well, that's good." Harry nodded. "I can't really take all the credit though. Muggles and dwarves came up with most of it first. I just sorta put it together." 

"They also said you'd helped them a lot as well." George added to Tom.  
"Something to do with muggle weather prediction?" Fred hinted.

"Oh, that. Did you not see that article in the Quibbler?" Tom nodded.

"It came out over the summer. We don't really have any circulation in Egypt." Luna commented.

"Oh. Yes, well, the muggles keep having problems predicting weather, mostly because there are hidden variables--like hidden magical places producing heat sinks that they can't see. I merely mentioned that something like that was more likely to get us found than the whole business with dark matter, since it was something here on the planet and of considerable interest to them. It turns out the Department of Mysteries had been studying weather patterns and some other things and were able to just put together a new shield for magical places before it became a problem. They started implementing it this summer, and sent word to the other worldwide Ministries that they should do the same."

"That's good and all, but how does muggles predicting weather help curse breakers?" Theo asked, confused.

"They said once the Ministries in the area had put up the new system, the hidden tombs suddenly stuck out like sore thumbs and became a lot easier to find. They marked all their locations and then shielded them like the rest of the magical places had been. That's what Bill said, anyway." Ron explained. 

"So between the two of you, you've rather streamlined curse breaking in Egypt in a big way."  
"Sadly though it probably won't do either one of you much good."  
"Aye. The goblins are curmudgeons at the best of times..."  
"...and greedy little sods to boot." 

"Oh well. What about the rest of you?" Harry shrugged.

"We've been learning about computers and computer programming." Lee announced.

"Okay. Why?" Theo asked.

"Well, it occurred to us that we're going to need more than just little headsets for action figures. We're going to need more integrated communications infrastructure if we're really going to make this work." Bernard spoke up. 

"We're going to need good two way communications, and let's face it, the notebooks, however cool, are starting to get a bit cumbersome, yeah? So, we were thinking, if we're going to do this, best do it right." Kendall added. 

We've been feeling out some folks here at Hogwarts to help us down the road, because obviously the scope of our project just got a whole lot bigger." Lee nodded.

"We're hoping we can make completely magical computers, as well as integrated communications for the ship and crew and us back here on earth." Bernard said, sounding giddy. 

"I was thinking about the sensors and all too. We need to be able to record and store information about everything going on with the ship and crew so we can use it to figure out and fix any problems that crop up, as well as seize control of the ship and bring it back should that become necessary. I've got some ideas already." Lee continued. "I'm pretty sure we can have a real basic PDA type thing at least by year's end. That's what I hope, anyway." he concluded.

"PDA?" Neville asked curiously.

"Personal digital assistant. It's basically a small, basic, handheld computer that can store information, retrieve it and also make phone calls and stuff sometimes. We're hoping, if we can get it to work out right, that we'll each have one of those, that will be connected to a larger, central computer at some point, so we can retrieve and search information from everyone's projects, not just our own, as well as store information on our own project for everyone's perusal. Sounds good, right?" Kendall explained.

"Yeah. Sounds real good. That's what all that stuff you ordered was for?" Ron asked curiously.

"Yep. We were working on all of it most of the summer, but for a week here and there." Lee nodded. "We really think we're on the right track. Those uni classes took up a lot of our time, but they really helped a lot."

"So that worked then?" Colin asked curiously.

"Yeah. We have to start at the beginning to get any use out of any of it, and it is time consuming, but I think we're really on the right track with it. Muggles have already done this stuff. Learning from them about it just makes sense."

"How about our stuff?" Fred asked.  
"Yeah. Did you get everything?" George asked eagerly.

"Yeah. It's in my trunk. I'll have the elves put everyone's orders in their workrooms tonight." 

"Anyone else?" Tom asked.

"I learned a lot of new curses and ate a lot of good food. I also can make glass now." Theo sighed.

"Okay then. Could come in handy later, who knows?"

"I studied a lot of plants this summer while I was in Greece, both land and sea. I have a bunch of new stuff to add to my greenhouses, and I've started a new one to cultivate the underwater stuff."

"Which brings us nicely to what I wanted to talk about." Tom nodded. "We need to expand the Environments group to be more than just making suits and such. We may need to terraform a planet before we can claim it…"

As he explained his thoughts, the others began nodding.

"That's a good point, actually. We can try to bring in the herbology club. Hannah Abbot, who I wanted to bring in before, is in it."

"Finally our Hufflepuffs." Theo joked.

"We should probably grab a few from CoMC too." Millicent pointed out.

"Get them set up with classes at MIT in biology and such if they want to take them." Harry nodded.

"Yeah. That'll be important.""So this uni has biology and computers…they have other stuff?"

"Loads. Also aeronautics, all sorts of environment and life sciences courses, materials engineering and metallurgy… in fact, you name it, they've probably got at least one class that touches on it. It's all science all the time."

"Wow." 

"So…Neville? You gonna stay with us in the mining group or you gonna jump ship to play with plants?" Ron demanded.

Neville suddenly looked torn, but Harry waved him off. "I expected as much. We'll just have to find a replacement to train up, is all."

"I might jump ship too. I'd like to join the environments group for animals." Millicent suddenly announced. "I can even name a replacement…though I don't know how keen everyone will be when they hear who it is."

"Go for it." Lee told her.

"Draco Malfoy."

"You're right. I'm not keen." Ron growled.

"Hear me out. He's good at the kind of stuff we've been doing. He's always tinkering with stuff to figure out how it works, studying broken things to figure out how to fix them, making stuff… And, best yet, when he has something like that to focus on, he has a lot fewer diva moments. So far as I'm concerned it's win-win." 

"She's gotta point, actually. Malfoy would actually be a help in the enchanters group." Theo nodded reluctantly. 

"I vote no." Ron sneered.

"Ron, if we brought him in, he'd have to swear the same oaths you did. Between that and keeping his curiosity engaged it might be alright." Harry pointed out. "He's a spoiled brat, but he's not nearly as awful as you seem to think he is. Besides, if he's with the enchanters you'll only really have to see him during general meetings."

"Alright, fine. I'll say yes…but only if we can bring in Hermione. You all know she's going to be a nightmare trying to dodge all year if we don't. She can work with Lee's group."

"Why my group?" Lee demanded.

"She's got a Kompyuter thingy. She mentioned it once. Her parents got if for her for school, but she was told after that muggle stuff doesn't work at Hogwarts."

"Actually, I had a bit of a thought about that. I don't think it's actually true. Now, it might need some tweaking to make it work correctly, but I don't think it's actually impossible. I think they just put in a blanket ban as part of secrecy. Muggles keep track of different signals, who's using them and what they're using them for. If a bunch of radio or other signals started popping out of central Scotland, where as far as they know there isn't any place for people to be, it would draw a whole lot of unwanted attention. So, the blanket ban. If I'm right about this, it's something you and your group will have to keep in mind when you're developing your stuff, Lee. HAM radio was used a lot during the war years by different rebel groups and such. Governments worldwide now monitor those sorts of signals and they've really cracked down on what sort of things the average person is allowed to do. If they can't find where the signal is coming from, their first thought is likely to be insurgents or terrorists, which will prompt them to keep investigating until they find us." Tom warned.

"Huh. Yeah, that's actually a good point. That would be a real problem. I'll keep it in mind." 

The meeting continued on for a little while longer while they all caught up on details of what the others had been up to, things that hadn't made it in to the notebooks, and then went their separate ways. 

 

"WHERE HAVE ALL OF YOU BEEN?!" Hermione shrilled the moment Harry opened the door of the compartment.

"Geez. I think you just made me deaf!" Harry complained, rubbing at his ears fretfully.

Hermione just glared at him and her foot began tapping a bit quicker.

"I told you, I went to talk to Tom about something."

"AND?"

"And what? Not really your business, is it?" 

Hermione's nostrils flared and she glared at Ron, who just shrugged. "Dining car. I've never been. I got money this time." He wasn't even lying. 

Neville came in a few minutes later and got pinned by Hermione's outrage.

"What? I was in the bathroom." _Just now_ , he thought but didn't say.

Luna drifted in a little while after that. 

"Goodness, Hermione, your wound tight as a spring. I think I have an extra butterbeer cork if you're having trouble with Nargles." 

"Where have you been?"

"I've been wandering around to see if anyone had any summer stories that would make good articles for the Quibbler. I have to keep regularly posting articles if I want to keep my press pass."

The reminder that Luna had become a journalist with credentials while she'd been just a first year got her agitated once more. She subsided into sulky silence and ignored them all for a bit. Ginny didn’t seem to buy their stories either, judging by how she kept fingering her wand and staring at all of them angrily. 

About two hours later Hermione finally unwound enough to ask after their summers, after lecturing all of them about not sending many letters.

"We were in Egypt, remember? We didn't bring Errol along, and even if we had he'd likely have died trying to cross the desert, let alone make it all the way to ruddy Britain… or France. You were in France, right?"

"I was in Greece. We didn't bring our owl either. Plus, I was busy studying the local flora and did some diving." Neville shrugged. 

"Daddy and I were in Germany visiting a friend of his and investigating the Fluffering Humpernuts that have been pestering the locals. There'll be a story about it in the next Quibbler."

Hermione did her best not to roll her eyes at the strange girl, before she finally turned her glare to Harry, daring him to make excuses.

"What? I did answer all your letters. The last one I didn't get till yesterday. We went on a bit of a trip towards the end of summer."

"Oh? Where?" she demanded, her voice clipped.

"Not sure exactly. Mountains. We were investigating caves."

"Caves." she repeated.

"Yeah. Loki knows I've recently taken an interest in geology. He thought I'd get a kick out of it. It was pretty cool. We went camping, and he showed us how to hunt deer and skin it and all and how to prepare the skin for leather, which was gross, but also pretty cool. Apparently his society is big on hunting and living off the land and stuff and he thought we should know how to do that." 

"That's barbaric."

"Why? We ate the meat we got and we made stuff from the leather and its horns and all. If we just wasted it or just wanted a trophy I could see you complaining but…"

"Hmph!"

Hermione remained a little snippy with all of them for the rest of the ride. Finally though, they were back at Hogwarts once more. 

Professor McGonagall was waiting in the entryway, along with Remus, Millicent, Theo…and surprisingly Draco Malfoy. 

"Ah good. Miss Granger, Messrs. Weasley, Potter and Longbottom, come with me please."

"Uh, what's going on, Professor?" Ron asked nervously.

"I will tell you in a moment." she sniffed. 

Once they were inside a nearby classroom, she turned to face them, Remus by her side.

"Everyone, for those of you who don't know, this is this year's DADA teacher, Professor Lupin."

Harry's group grinned at the man, Hermione and Draco just nodded attentively.

"As for why you are here, all of you are going to be attempting to sit twelve OWLs." 

Hermione's eyes bugged out and she snapped her head around to look at the other students in shock. 

"The department of Mysteries has recently developed a device they call a time-turner that will allow you to roll back time for an hour. Foolishly, if you ask me, they decided to make one of these devices available to Hogwarts in order to allow all of you to attend all classes for the year, and for some reason the headmaster also thinks it's a good idea. Professor Lupin is here because he'll be holding the device and sending all of you as a group back in time twice a week on the days when two classes are in session at the same time. You will all have to sign these contracts, much simplified as you will not be responsible for the device. You must simply agree not to reveal your knowledge of the device or that you are travelling back in time to anyone outside this room." she explained, handing out contracts for everyone to sign. 

Once she'd collected everyone's papers, she shooed them towards the door. "Remember, not a word. Now, run along. The feast will be starting soon."

"Yes, Professor." 

Hermione held her peace until they'd reached the table. The boys eyeing her sidewise all the while, as she looked ready to explode with questions, so much so she was practically vibrating. Millie and Theo shook their heads at all of them as they split off to head to the Slytherin table.  
Hermione's rear had barely hit the bench before she was already hissing at them.

"Just what do you all think you're doing? Twelve OWLs? Are you crazy? You'll never be able to manage it!"

"Says you, Miss-I-was-petrified-all-last-year." 

"Yeah, Hermione. I can't say I appreciate you calling us all stupid." Ron added, his ears red.

"Me either." Neville added.

Hermione made a frustrated sound deep in her throat, but the first years were brought in and they had to quiet down for the sorting.

"Look at Dennis. He's drenched!"

"Seems to be wearing Hagrid's coat, too."

They saw the boy they were looking at, who looked rather like a smaller, more excitable Colin mouth to his brother _"I fell in the lake"_ , to which Colin just laughed and shook his head. 

"Who on earth is Dennis?" Hermione demanded.

"Colin's little brother. He's starting this year." 

"And you all know him how?"

"Through Colin, obviously." 

Hermione huffed at them, and went back to ignoring them again, which honestly by this point suited them fine. She'd been in a bad mood all day, it seemed.

Unfortunately, their reprieve didn't last. The moment dinner was done and they all started back to Gryffindor tower, Hermione once more started in on them.

"I don't know what you were all thinking trying to do this at such a late date. I've been preparing ahead since first year to be able to take twelve OWLs. None of you have done that. What's more, you barely do more than the absolute minimum in your regular classes! You're disorganized, and you procrastinate, and you're simply not going to be able to cut it! You really should just listen to sense and drop two or three of your classes now. I mean, really! You barely manage homework as it is! How are you going to manage five more classes? Hmm?"

"Hermione, just stop, would you?" Harry said tiredly.

"Yeah. It's not your problem." Ron agreed.

"Yeah, it's ours. Whether we manage it or not, we're the ones who will be doing it, pass or fail. We want to try. That should be enough." Neville added.

"But…!"

"No. Worry about your own classes and your own homework. We'll manage. It's not yours to worry about it." Harry repeated.

"If you would just listen to me!"

"Goodnight, Hermione. Get some sleep. We've a long day tomorrow, and a longer week." Neville told her firmly.

"Argh!" she let out a strangled yell of frustration, before stomping towards the girls' dorms.

Dean and Seamus were already up in the dorm, putting up their posters and unpacking when the three of them arrived.

"What's all that with Hermione?" Dean asked curiously.

"Yeah, don't tell me you're still feuding." Seamus added.

"She's mad because we're all going for twelve OWLs and she wants us to admit we're too stupid to manage and back out."

"Ah…"

"What seriously?" Dean huffed.

"Pretty much."

"Why would any of you want to take twelve classes? Sounds mad to me. I took two electives, that's it, and only because it was required." Seamus laughed.

"Yeah, seriously. Weren't you raised by muggles? Are bragging rights so important to you that you're going to waste time in muggle studies?"  
Dean asked Harry curiously.

"Actually, it's the two of us that will mostly be getting bragging rights. Harry's taking muggle studies so he can continue muggle school or something." Neville explained.

"Muggle school?" Seamus repeated.

Harry explained what Professor Burbage had told him about the program, and suddenly Dean and Seamus both looked more interested.  
"Huh. I had no idea. I've got an empty elective slot too. Do you think it's too late to sign up? It's just… I think my parents would both be pretty jazzed by that. It's hard for them, you know? They have to be kind of vague about where I'm at and what I'm up to. If they had a regular report card to wave around, or a chance to see me go to uni…" Dean mused.

"I think my dad would be pretty keen on that too. I think he feels left out sometimes. He'd probably get a kick out of being the one to help me with summer homework once in a while." Seamus nodded.

"I'd talk to McGonagall and find out, if that's the case. The sooner the better. I don't know what kind of arrangements would have to be made or anything."

"How'd you know about this? It didn't say anything about it in that booklet thing they gave us." Dean asked.

"I asked the Professor what they did in her class and whether there was any point to someone like me, who was raised by muggles, even bothering."

"They should tell you that when you're signing up." Seamus complained.

"So tell that to McGonagall too." 

 

"Too early." Ron groaned. 

"Up and at 'em. Are you going to give Hermione a chance to smirk at you and be making comments all morning about how you've already proven you can't cut it?"

Ron was up and headed for the showers before he managed to finish.

"He's really ticked about that, isn't he?" Seamus asked with a laugh.

"Yeah, I'd say. I had kind of wondered if he would go the distance, to tell the truth, but now I've no doubts. He'll stick with it and try to get good grades too, if only to rub it in her face come OWL time." Harry agreed.

"Hermione should've known better. Isn't Hogwarts motto 'never tickle a sleeping dragon'?" Dean snickered. "She should have listened."

"I'll say. You ready, man? We might be able to catch McGonagall before she heads down." Seamus asked.

"Yeah. I'm coming." 

Hermione seemed to be in better spirits that morning. She was usually cheerful the first day of classes and eager to get started. She was practically vibrating in her seat as McGonagall made her way down the table.  
The boys all sighed as they took a look at the schedule. 

"I'm glad this week is a short week. Give us a chance to sort of get in the groove again." Ron muttered. He glanced up, saw Hermione smirking at him and scowled. 

"Looks like divination is up first. We'd best get our books." Harry interjected, hoping to stave off an argument.

"North tower. We'd best head off now. It'll take a while to get there." Neville announced.

"Oh, you know where it is? We'll just follow you then." Parvati said with some relief.

"Come on. It's a long walk." 

 

Twenty minutes later they and the rest of the divination students were gathered in the north tower, looking around in confusion.

"I thought you knew where it was? There's no classroom here!"

"We've gotta wait for the ladder. The classroom is up there." Ron pointed to the ceiling. 

"How do you know that? None of us has ever been up this way before." Hermione said suspiciously.

"We have. We came up here to talk to the professor at the end of last year. We told her we were going for twelve OWLs and we'd need to check in with her periodically and how did that work, except she foretold that we'd be attending classes with her next fall."

Lavender and Parvati gasped in awe, while Hermione just rolled her eyes. A trapdoor up above opened up just as the bell was ringing and let down a golden ladder to the classroom above.  
The classroom itself looked like a strange cross between someone's attic and an old tea shop. Small velvet poufs were set around numerous small tables across the risers that led downwards from the trapdoor. The windows and lamps were all covered with gauzy veils that made the light diffuse and colorful. The whole place was very warm and reeked of incense, so much so that Harry could see more than one kid getting suddenly light-headed from the fumes. Lavender and Parvati both seemed very impressed with the place and hurried to take seats down near the front. Hermione looked around at the whole place with obvious disdain, sniffed, and made her way to an open pouf with her nose in the air.  
A waiting hush filled the room as everyone waited for the professor to make her appearance.  
When she finally appeared, Harry could see Hermione's derision reach an all-new high. 

"Welcome, class to your study of the mystic art of divination…"

She had a breathy voice, low and mysterious, and she had obviously dressed for the part. She had wild, curly hair that stood out around her head like dandelion fluff, and she seemed to be draped with all manner of shawls, scarves and bangles. She seemed to drift through the room rather than walk, her gestures dramatic and meant to heighten the theater. 

"Now that you have all chosen to endeavor upon the most difficult field of magic, I should warn you. Books will only take you so far in the study of the noble art. Many a witch and wizard, skilled in bangs and smells and sudden disappearances have had no skill whatsoever in opening their inner eye…"

The boys all looked at Hermione, and sure enough she seemed mortally offended by the idea that she couldn't learn something by reading a book. The longer the professor talked, the more pronounced Hermione's scowl became.

 

Professor McGonagall looked up when her third year transfiguration class walked in. Miss Granger seemed to be seething, Messrs. Weasley and Longbottom rather pale, and the rest of the children seemed rather spooked.  
She leapt off the desk and transformed out of her animagus form. 

"Whatever is the matter with all of you? I do believe that's the first time I did that and didn't merit at least a smile."

"You see Professor, we were just in divination and…"

"Oh, I see. And which of you are supposed to die?"

"Harry is!"

"She didn't say I was going to die, she said I was going to have a close encounter with death at midwinter, which isn't the same thing. I promised to get her his autograph…. And she thanked me and said she'd have to get a frame for it" he added, sounding puzzled.

"She also said one of you will leave us by midwinter!" Lavender reminded him. 

"And the thing you fear will happen on October 11th!" Parvati reminded Lavender. "What if that's when he gets diagnosed with a deathly illness!" She and Lavender gripped each other's hands and looked at Harry with horror and pity writ large across their faces. 

"Well, Potter, you look healthy enough to me. If you should in fact die before school resumes for the spring term, you needn't hand in your holiday homework."

The children still looked rather pale and shaken.

"Oh, do relax, you silly geese. It's a bit of a tradition with her. Every year she predicts that one of her students is going to die and it has yet to happen! Now, hand in your summer homework and we'll begin." 

The children slowly began to relax under McGonagall's no-nonsense attitude; it was rather hard to hold on to the mystical willies while she was marching around, every line of her too-straight back almost daring "wooly mystical forces" to interfere while she was teaching class. Even so, every so often one of the students would catch sight of Harry, bent over his notes and get misty-eyed, as though they were mourning him already. 

 

"That was so much better, don't you think? A real class, with a real teacher. Honestly! That Trelawney…"

"Professor Trelawney."  
"Yeah, Hermione. She's our teacher and you should speak of her with respect." Harry and Neville were quick to correct her.

"Excuse me!"

"What? That's what you always told us when we complained about Snape, and with far more reason. Why do you hate her so much anyway?"

"It's obvious, innit? She said reading a book wouldn't do her any good." Ron interjected.

"So? Snape said we were probably all a bunch of idiot dunderheads the first day and she still likes him." Neville scoffed.

"It's all nonsense! You heard Professor McGonagall. Divination is wooly at best. Hardly worth wasting our time on."

"So drop out."

"I'm not going to drop out!"

"Then stop complaining. Unlike Potions, Divination is an elective. You can drop it at any time. If you don't like it, leave, but don't sit around whining about it." 

Hermione gave them all a dirty look and stomped past them towards DADA class with her nose in the air.

"You think maybe we were too hard on her?" Ron fretted.

"No." Harry and Neville answered quite firmly.

 

Remus Lupin's tired face greeted them as they entered the classroom just before the bell rang. 

"Good morning, students. Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts. As you all know, I'm your professor, Remus Lupin. Now, if you'll all leave your books and such behind and follow me, be sure to bring your wands, today's lesson will be a practical one. I was lucky enough to locate a boggart here in the castle, so today you'll be learning how to deal with one."

The students all began chattering excitedly as they followed Lupin down to the teacher's lounge. It was only the first class and already he was miles ahead of Quirrel or Lockhart. Professor Snape was seated within when they entered, reading a book. He sneered at all of them as he stalked off, his free time interrupted. 

A wardrobe inside the room shook briefly, but Lupin paid it no mind.

"Now class, who can tell me what a boggart is?"

Hermione, naturally began waving her arm and all but jumping up and down. Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson were sneering at her.

"How about you, Mister Malfoy? Care to take a guess?"

"It's a shapeshifter. It hides in dark places and takes on the form of your greatest fear."

"Very good. Five points to Slytherin. The boggart on the other side of that door has not yet assumed any shape. No one knows what a boggart looks like in its natural form. It doesn't yet know what form to assume, as it doesn't yet know the fears of the people on the other side. Now, can anyone tell me why it's important that we're facing it as a group?"

Hermione's arm began waving faster and nearly clipped Neville in the ear.

"How about you, Miss Abbot?"

"Uh…" Hannah looked panicked for a moment, but her friend Ernie squeezed her hand and nodded at her. "Um…well… it won't know what to become?" she asked hesitantly.

"Exactly right, Miss Abbot. Take five points. The spell we'll be using today is Riddikulus, say it with me."

"Riddikulus!"

"Very good. You see, the boggart feeds on fear, and is defeated by laughter. As each of you faces it, I want you to think of some way to make your greatest fear silly. Now, line up, and let's see how you do!" 

The fears expressed were as numerous and varied as the students themselves. A disembodied hand began to creep across the floor, only to be caught in a mousetrap. A bloody, bandaged mummy shuffled towards them, only to trip on its bandages. Ron went white as milk when the boggart became a huge acromantula, but the whole class laughed when he put rollerskates on its eight spindly legs and sent it flailing and staggering about the room. 

As more and more people faced it, the thing began becoming confused and began morphing into two and three fears at once, with often comical results. During one such transformation it rolled towards Harry, but Lupin stepped between them and it turned into a full moon, before shooting back to the center of the room.

"We've almost got it. Mr. Longbottom! What do you fear?"

"Professor Snape." Neville admitted, to much tittering among the students. Lupin whispered in his ear a moment and when Professor Snape in a high dudgeon came stalking towards the trembling boy, he bravely pointed his wand and yelled Riddikulus! Causing the grumpy professor to transform and appear wearing Neville's grandmother's clothes, including the odd hat with a vulture perched on it that she was always seen sporting. The whole class laughed at the image and the poor boggart exploded.

"Well done, everyone. All of you who faced it, take five points!"

There was just enough time left to go collect their things before lunch. Harry sent Neville off with a quiet word and stayed behind to talk to Lupin, who sighed knowingly when he saw him still there.

"You want to know why I didn't let you face it?"

"I was curious, yeah."

"You have some horrors in your past that the other children just don't. I didn't think it a good idea to have Lord Voldemort suddenly appear in the midst of the classroom."

"You think I'm afraid of Voldemort?" Harry laughed. "First of all, I supposedly beat him when I was an infant. I also faced him the year before last and lived to tell the tale." 

"I see. If not Voldemort, then what are you afraid of?"

"Haven't the foggiest. I'd like to find out."

"Well…this boggart is done for. I'll tell you what, if I find another one I'll tell you and let you face it, alright?"

"I'll hold you to that."

"I have to admit I'm rather curious now as well. Acromantulas, do you think?"

"I chopped them into messes and fought a forest fire right after. Try again." 

 

Ron groaned theatrically the next morning as he was awoken.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead." Neville called, jabbing his foot.

"Let me die in peace."

"Stop being so dramatic, Ron."

"How are you two awake? Yesterday went on for bloody ever, and today is going to be even longer. I can't believe I signed up for this."

"Look at it this way, Ron, at least we're all in it together."

"Your own fault, mate!" Seamus laughed as he and Dean headed downstairs to breakfast.

"Look at it this way. At least we get to travel through time today."

"Yeah, to take another bloody class, one that will probably give us another ton of bloody homework."

"You should have worked ahead like we did. It's your own fault; you're the one who got the list of likely assignments from Percy." Harry scolded.

"I still can't believe he has all his homework for all seven years" Neville added.

"Hah! That would be bad enough on its own. He has all his homework arranged by year, date and subject and cross-indexed for overlaps between assignments." Ron snorted as he began getting dressed. 

"Either way, you should have started some of your homework. You saw us. It took us five minutes to do yesterday's. All we had to do was tidy up what we'd started and fill it out a bit more to get the proper length."

"I didn't want to waste my last week of summer doing homework."

"So instead you'll have to waste all your free time all year." 

"Don't bloody remind me. I can't believe you all actually did so much of it. Where'd you find the time?"

"I just camped out in the library for most of a week churning out half-assed essays that could serve as the basis for actual homework."

"Same here, but I did it in my room." 

"Millie and Theo did too."

"So me, Hermione and bloody Malfoy are the stupid fools stuck doing homework as we get it? Bloody hell."

"You could camp out this weekend and try to work through part of the list" Harry shrugged.

"And lose a couple of weekends? No thank you. I'll just have to try to get it done as I get it each night and hope for the best. The weekends are mine." 

Hermione was already seated at the Gryffindor table when they got down there, feverishly reading through a large book. She looked tired, like she'd not slept much the night before.  
Breakfast was nearly half over when they all realized she'd not had a bite to eat.

"Uh, Hermione? Breakfast will be over soon."

"Leave me alone. I'm busy."

The boys exchanged a glance and shrugged, before heading off to their first class of the day. 

 

Care of Magical Creatures took place on the edge of the forest. The teacher-- Professor Grubblyplank, who had taken over for Professor Kettleburn who had retired at the end of last year, met them not too far from Hagrid's hut. She was a grey-haired, rather dumpy woman, who nonetheless had a kind face and a no-nonsense attitude.

"Welcome, class, to care of Magical Creatures. You're all in for a bit of a treat today. Boys, if you would, take a few steps back. Girls, to the front. Alright, Hagrid, bring 'em out." 

The girls squealed in unison as a tiny, delicate, golden unicorn foal was gently led out by the large man, followed by a silvery white full grown unicorn. They both had large, liquid eyes, and horns that seemed made of captured moonlight. The grown unicorn eyed the boys distrustfully, and suddenly the long, wickedly sharp horn on its head seemed much less pretty and far more dangerous.  
The foal nickered softly, and the girls squealed again.

"I hope this isn't going to happen every class." Neville said with some asperity.

"Yeah, that'll get annoying right fast." Ron agreed, rubbing his ear.

 

After CoMC was Charms, which was always fun. 

As they left the classroom, Ron stretched. "Finally, just one more then lunch!"

"Uh…Ron?"

"What?"

Harry and Neville just shook their heads and pulled Ron along to the meeting place, following after Hermione, Millie, Theo and Draco, who they could all see further down the hall.  
Professor Lupin was waiting for all of them in a bare stone room, with a plate of sandwiches in hand.

"Ooh, food! I'm starving!" Ron said happily. 

Remus snickered and let each of them take one. 

"Eat quickly, and put this chain around all your necks. Is everyone connected?"

"Yeah. We're good."

Remus gave the little hourglass hanging from the chain a couple of turns and stepped back. The kids stared around them in bemusement as the world seemed to rewind around them. They could see themselves sitting in class even. Just as suddenly as it began it stopped. They were in the same stone room, and Remus was there waiting.

"I gave you sandwiches? Huh. I'll have to remember that. Alright, run along" he urged, after collecting the time-turner. "You've another class to attend. The bell will be in about ten minutes."

"Come on then, everyone. Muggle studies awaits." 

They could all hear Draco grumbling behind them, but ignored his mumbling just as easily. They made it into the classroom just as the bell rang. Professor Burbage simply nodded to them and directed Harry, Millicent, and Hermione to the back, where Dean, Seamus, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Susan Bones of Hufflepuff, and Megan Jones of Ravenclaw were already seated. The rest took the remaining empty seats in front of them. There must have been a silencing spell or something up, as the Professor began class, but they couldn't hear her. 

Harry examined the box that was on his desk--everyone in the back row had one. The rest of them were already digging through theirs. Harry opened his and found a letter on top, explaining that the box once tied to his magical signature and activated, would serve as a delivery service to get his completed assignments to where they would be graded and added to the muggle system. He followed the instructions to activate the box and then opened it again, finding a book. 

_Welcome student to the interactive muggle equivalency program. This book will serve as your gateway to education! First things first. On the next page you will find a sheet for your personal information for you to fill out. Once you have done so, tap it with your wand to activate. After this is done, you'll be able to turn the pages further and continue on. Simply follow the instructions as given._

It seemed simple enough. Harry flipped the page and filled out his name, birthdate, former and current guardians, national insurance number -- which he'd made sure to memorize at a young age, just in case-- and a few other details. Once done, the information disappeared and the next page was able to be turned. The next page had a series of subjects and check boxes along with instructions like "Pick two from this section", or "Pick language of choice". Harry took his time flipping through the various sections and seeing what all was available, while suppressing a tired sigh. At this rate, he was never going to have time for the Garden, let alone be able to continue sneaking in classes from MIT. 

"So much to do, so little time." 

"SHHH!" Hermione hissed.

Harry rolled his eyes, as did most of the others. Justin, who was seated next to him gave him a commiserating smile, before going back to his own booklet.

Now that he'd read through everything, he began checking off things in each grouping, all the while wondering how this was even going to work. He was barely going to have time to do his Hogwarts stuff as is, without all this! They wanted him to learn new languages! He had enough trouble with English! At least the math courses he should be able to breeze through, probably a bit of the science as well, with all the reading he'd been doing lately. The literature and arts stuff was going to blow. History, it just figured didn't it? He checked the last box and waited to see what came next. His box dinged.  
Curious, he opened it and found a stack of notebooks, and a couple of cubes, and some books. He noted then the page he'd been looking at had changed. As he read through he began to grin.

"I love magic."

He picked up the first cube and stuck it in his mouth. It felt weird, like something was slithering around inside his head. It didn't hurt, exactly, it just felt exceedingly strange. Once the cube was dissolved he moved on to the next. His head felt overstuffed by the time he was done, but he tapped his booklet with his wand as instructed. He read through and his eyebrows raised. He peered inside the box and found the folded board he was told to look for. Once unfolded it covered his desk on three sides. On each of the folds was a portrait. Only the leftmost seemed to be awake.

"You ^&*) &*&%$% your cubes?"  
"Yes ma'am?"  
"Good. ())&%$$^ *IOOT$R#@ French. We will converse (*^%## )__*^%$# fluent, which usually takes ()&%$##. I will )^%$## questions and you will ))_*^%$"  
"Okay?" Harry replied uncertainly. He'd only understood a word in five, if that.  
"Good. What is your name?"  
"Harry Potter" 

 

It was rather unfortunate that their last class before lunch was history of magic. Even with a few years exposure it was almost impossible to stay awake in there. Neville decided to be smart and copy Harry's notes rather than listening to the teacher. Ron was, surprisingly, reading his muggle studies book. Hermione had parked herself up front and was busy trying not to nod off while taking reams of notes. Harry decided to get some of his other work out of the way. He dug through his box from muggle studies and found the math notebook he was to turn in with his completed work and began working through the exercises. It didn't take him long at all; it was simple stuff--regular math, and some algebra and a bit of geometry there at the end. He managed to finish the whole booklet as it was a double period. It was with a great feeling of accomplishment that he dropped the completed notebook into the box and hit "send".  
The students all groaned in relief as the bell rang.

"LUNCH!"

"Calm down, Ron."

"And remember, we still have classes after."

"Don't harsh my groove, mate."

"Oh, here's your history notes." Neville told Harry.

"You get them all?"

"Yeah. I added in a few things the professor mentioned too."

"Oh. Cool."

"Say, Ron, what was so interesting in your muggle studies book?"

"Huh? Oh, I was flipping through and found that belly machine you mentioned. I was reading about it."

"What's your obsession with the ultrasound?"

"Well, it's pretty cool, innit? Seeing babies before they're born. Not a good likeness, but it's still pretty cool." 

The rest of them just chuckled at Ron's enthusiasm. 

Hermione was busy reading through her books for the upcoming classes and barely ate at lunch, in stark contrast to the boys who all descended on the food like a swarm of locusts.

"What'd we 'ave nex?" Ron mumbled around a leg of chicken.

"Arithimancy and then Potions after."

"Double periods?"

"Both of them."

Ron whimpered. "I hope Lupin gives us more sandwiches. Dinner suddenly seems really far away."

"It gets worse, mate." Neville sighed. "We've got astronomy tonight at midnight."

"It's official. We're all mad and made a terrible, terrible mistake."

"I did try to tell you." Hermione sniffed, before going back to her feverish reading.

The three boys exchanged an insulted glare and bent back to their lunch with a will. They needed to be fully recharged for the rest of the day. 

 

When all of them stumbled towards the garden after the last class of the day, they spent twenty minutes just collapsed in the common room, before peeling themselves up determinedly to get started on their homework. They all knew too well that if they let it get away from them, time in the garden to actually work was going to be nonexistent. Luckily it wasn't anything too onerous just yet. Ron sighed as the rest of them dug out their half-done essays they'd pounded out during the summer and tidied them up. 

"Done, done, and done." Neville said happily. "Now I just need to do those worksheets for runes and arithimancy and I should be caught up."

"I can't tell you how relieved I was when the teacher handed out those language cube thingies before we got started. I was half afraid we'd just be stuck trying to memorize a whole bunch of symbols by rote and hope for the best. My head feels rather stuffed though. I already got French and Latin earlier during muggle studies." Harry muttered.

"Same here." Millicent sighed.

While Ron was finishing up his essays, Harry dug out the science studies notebook from his box and flipped through it. It was all basic stuff he'd either covered before in muggle school, or had come across more recently in his extra studies. He began working his way through it steadily. The more of these things he could knock out, the less he had to do later, which would be a boon, considering the size of the books he had to read and write long papers on for 'foreign languages and literature', and the amount of world history he was going to have to learn.

"Just one more day…and then uh…fourteen weeks to go. Thirteen. Something like that. Bugger." 

"Who's complaining now?" Ron scoffed.

"Say, when are we swearing in Malfoy anyway?" Millicent wondered. "It's just, I was sort of feeling him out and hinting at stuff and he seemed really interested. We've all been trying to get back in the swing of things, him as well, so he hasn't been asking about it, but he will."

"I don't know. This weekend? Should we wait though? He's doing twelve too. None of us has had a chance to even think of the project so far." Neville pointed out.

"If he's caught up on his work we might have time this weekend, even if we can't get a lot done."

"Are we sure we want to bring him in?"

"Millie and Theo think he'll be a good asset for the team, and we know he won't go run off and spill the beans. He'll like being in on the secret too much to want to share." Harry pointed out.

"What about Hermione?"

"Let's give it a few weeks and see what's what. I don't think we're going to have to worry about her following us though. She's had her nose buried so far in her books so far this year, I don't think she really notices what's going on around her."

"Yeah, what's the deal with that? She seems extreme even for her." Theo noted.

"It's probably because of being petrified last year. She wouldn't have had top marks to take home because of it, so she's got something to prove now." 

"I don't envy all of you living with her. Do you know she growled at me earlier?"

"Yeah, she's been kind of snappish, and it's only the first week. I'm almost afraid to see what she's going to be like come exam time." 

"When are we going to bring in everyone else?"

"At the moment I'm going to say not till after the winter holidays."

"Why so late?"

"Tom. He figured out how to record classes on the uni in a globe and he's working on making individually viewable copies. Classes at MIT are just starting up again for fall, so he's going to start recording classes. He figures he should have a complete set for biology and biochemistry and whatever to give them to get them started when we come back from break. Unfortunately he didn't finish working on it until after Lee, Bernard and Kendall were most of the way through the two classes they sat through so he still has to make copies of those classes for anyone they recruit."

"That's cool, but what about for the rest of us?" Theo wanted to know.

"Don't worry. He's recording stuff for us too. I know Remus and Sirius have both been taking advantage of the uni in a globe when they can too, so they've been helping record stuff as well. We'll all be like science super geniuses by the time we're done." 

"Cool."


	2. Quidditch and Hogsmeade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione continues to be overzealous about schoolwork. The communications group has a breakthrough. Explorer's Inc. tries a new money-making scheme. Hogsmeade weekend.

"Morning, Harry! Gryffindor quidditch try-outs are today. I need your broom." Ginny greeted Harry early Saturday morning.

"I said I'd let you borrow my broom if you made the team. It's not really fair to everyone else that wants to try out if you just have a better broom than them. My tryout, if you want to call it that, was on a school broom. You'll be fine."

Ginny's face fell rather comically, but Harry was already thinking about other things and didn't really notice.

"Ugh! BOYS!" Ginny growled.

"Don't worry, Gin-Gin. You can borrow mine for the try-outs." Fred offered.

"Yeah. We've got you covered. No worries." George agreed.

 

Hermione ran off after breakfast to, probably, add a few more feet to her essays. Harry, Ron and Neville watched her go, shrugged, and headed for the Garden.

They could hear Lee, Kendall and Bernard puttering around in their workroom when they arrived and called out a greeting, only to receive a distracted grunt in reply, and Kendall muttering something about mail protocols. 

"Any idea what that's about?"

"Haven't a clue." 

"Sounds like they're trying to send mail to someone."

"You guys can borrow Hedwig if you need to send a letter."

Things got quiet in the communications room, then Bernard's puzzled face peeked out. "Um…what?"

A rather imperious peck at the door to the garden sounded in the quiet room. Neville, frowning, went to open it, only to reveal Hedwig, who flew around, looking for a letter to carry.

"You said you got the mail protocol wrong." Harry explained. 

Hedwig landed with a light thump. By the look on her face, there had damn well be a letter or there was going to be hell to pay.  
By this point Lee and Kendall had peeked out as well.

"Uh… I do have a letter for my mum I haven't posted yet. I was going to do it later…" Kendall spoke up, eyeing Hedwig. 

Hedwig puffed out her chest and extended her leg with great dignity, before giving a firm Preck! The words _'well, get on with it'_ were strongly implied.  
Kendall looked at the boys a bit helplessly, then went to fetch her letter.

"Megyn Jones. She's in Cardiff." she told Hedwig as she attached it. Hedwig gave a little half-bow and flew off in a silent flutter of wings.  
When she was out of earshot, Bernard started snickering.

"Your owl's a bit pushy, mate." 

"I prefer strong-willed." Harry shrugged. Bernard continued laughing, so he continued. "Seriously, mate, you gotta watch what you say to her. She'll give you the cold shoulder until you grovel otherwise." 

"Uh…yeah. I'll keep that in mind." 

"If you all weren't talking about letters, what were you doing in there?"

"Trying to set up a working e-mail system." Lee sighed. "It's kind of touch and go so far." 

"It's getting better…that last message actually went somewhere." Kendall tried to be positive.

"Back to the drawing board." 

The door opened and Millie, Theo and Draco Malfoy came trooping in. Though he was trying very hard not to show it, Malfoy was both startled and impressed by the clubhouse.

"So… What is this place? My father never mentioned this!"

"That would be because he didn't know about it. This is the Garden. It's the headquarters of research and development for the Explorer's Club, Inc. And you, lucky fellow, have been recruited to be a part of it." Theo smirked.

"Why doesn't he know about it? He's one of the investors!"

"He is? Since when?!" Ron demanded hotly.

"Your dad is one? Huh. Never pegged him for wanting in on dealing with muggle garbage." Harry said, sounding surprised.

"Wait, Harry, you knew about this?" Ron turned his outrage on him.

"Not that specifically. I did know Sirius was looking for investors to help him raise money for an environmental clean-up initiative he's going to be trying. It was just an idea still so far as I knew. I didn't know he'd actually started going ahead with it." 

"What does that have to do with space?" Lee wondered.

"Nothing, actually. It's mostly for fund-raising purposes…and land. Once the land is cleaned up he was talking about putting up new magical villages to replace the ones that were lost during the war. It was actually all Tom's idea." 

"What was my idea?" Tom asked as he wandered out of the Environments workroom.

"The environmental cleanup. Sirius is going ahead with it. Draco's dad is one of the investors."

"I'm not surprised. Once he saw how much we got from those cans we collected…"

"Cans? What?" Ron demanded.

"I mentioned that on the train." Harry said impatiently. "You can get money for cans. We did magic on some trashcans over the summer. Any aluminum cans that get tossed in the bin get diverted to a machine Remus and Sirius helped make that cleans them, strips them of paint, melts them down and makes them into blocks of pure aluminum. Sirius got the goblins to fence the stuff and made a pretty bit of money on it, considering there was very little work involved. The proceeds are going in to the corporate fund. What he's doing next, if he goes ahead with it, will be much bigger." 

"But what is he doing?"

"Reclaiming used up landfills."

"Landfills?"

"Muggles send all their trash and garbage to one location, and call it a landfill. We're talking about millions of muggles and tons and tons and tons of trash. Picture a place the size of the Hogwarts grounds, except the mountains are actually made of muggle garbage. All of it dumped there, buried under and then more dumped on top. The muggles fill them up until the area can't take anymore, then just go find a new place to start over. There's places like this all over, much of it filled with stuff that won't decompose, industrial pollutants, all sorts of things." Tom explained.

"Yeah, see, the muggles don't have the means to do anything with all the stuff, which is why they dump it and try to forget about it. The thing is, we have magic, which means we can." Harry continued.

"He's going to hire people to work there to dig out all the garbage, render it down to its component parts and sell it back to the muggles."  
"What use would that be though? I mean…if it's trash." Colin wondered.

"Muggle plastics are all made from petroleum. They make like, six thousand different things from the stuff, and all of it ends up in landfills and in the oceans and rivers, and they can't get rid of it or do anything useful with it. They're always looking for more petroleum. Half or more of the muggle wars are over control of the oil fields. We can take all that plastic, render it back into petroleum and sell it back to them!" Harry said cheerfully.  
"There's old electronics in there too. They have bits of gold and other precious minerals and metals in them. It's only a small bit in each one, but if we strip it all away it will add up once we've cleared all of it." Tom agreed.  
"Glass that can be rendered back into sand. Wood and other organic stuff that can be cleaned up and rendered down into mulch and fertilizer…"  
"…and all the industrial pollutants can be pulled out rendered down into safer components and sold back as well."   
"All the paint and varnish on different stuff can be stripped off and sold too."  
"...and once all the garbage is gone, the land made clean again, we'll be left with a big piece of real estate that the muggles don't want and would sooner forget about for our use." Tom concluded.

"Remember I said once I was afraid Tom and Harry were going to start twinspeaking?" Ron muttered to Neville beside him.  
Neville, wide-eyed, could only nod. 

"Is Sirius still looking for investors?" Theo wondered.

"I don't know. You can ask."

"Maybe I will. I think my dad will want in on this too." 

 

Harry was rather puzzled when he got to lunch later that afternoon when Ginny glared at him.

"What's with you?"

"I'm the new Gryffindor seeker."

"Congratulations?"

"No thanks to you!"

"I never said I was going to help you. I might not be on the team anymore, but it's still important to me. I want the best player available to be chosen to replace me, not just whoever has the best broom."

"Slytherin still has those 2001s." Ginny grumbled.

"It's not going to do them any good this year." 

"Oh? And why is that o wise and powerful guru?"

Luna's dad held a fundraiser over the summer through the Quibbler to raise money for new brooms for Ravenclaw. So many of their readers sent small donations that they had enough for a second set of brooms, which they gave to Hufflepuff. Sirius drummed up money for brooms for Gryffindor. You're all going to be on a level playing field this year." Harry explained quietly.

"What? I didn't hear about this!" 

"I just heard about it myself from Luna. She got a letter from her dad earlier. I called Sirius after because I was really bummed that we were probably going to lose this year, but he told me he'd heard about the fundraiser and started raising money for us too." 

"So…we're all getting new brooms?" 

"Yep. I'm sure you'll hear about it when they get here." 

"Oh wow. I've got to tell the others!" 

"I don't think you'll actually have to." Harry remarked, spotting Oliver stumbling into the great hall looking dazed. 

"This is so great. HA! I can't wait to rub that little ferret's face in his complete and utter humiliation." Ginny sighed happily, glaring across the hall at Draco, who sneered back.

"Don't take him too lightly. He's a decent player when he stays focused, and he does have a year's experience on you." 

"No problem. I've got this in the bag. You shouldn't underestimate me." Ginny assured him before hurrying off to celebrate their good fortune with the rest of the team. 

Hermione dropped several heavy books on the table and settled down, looking irritable. "Madame Pince closed the library! She said she's hungry." she said with disdain. 

"Well, it is lunch time." Neville pointed out. 

"She could have left me there to finish up! I still have potions, history, runes, astronomy and (sniff) divination to do." 

Harry peeked into her bag and saw numerous large scrolls, each of them neatly bound and labelled. It looked like she'd been averaging two (very long) homework assignments a night. If she'd just finished one more this morning, she could conceivably finish another of similar size by dinner, but that would still leave four. If she hammered out one more tonight before curfew, she still had a similar number to do tomorrow. It's no wonder she was getting snappy with everyone. She couldn't even really put it off, as Monday would bring all new assignments. She slapped a bit of meat onto some bread and started nibbling it absently while digging through her bag one handed. Her eyes suddenly widened in horror. 

"Oh no. I forgot about muggle studies… I couldn't fit the box in my bag earlier…" 

Hermione set down her barely-eaten sandwich and grabbed her bag before hurrying off.

"Has she eaten at all this week?"

"I think that's the most I've seen her eat since we all arrived back, to be honest."

"It's only the first week. It's not a good sign if she's already scrambling to finish."

"I can't see how she'd be able to do otherwise. Did you see the size of those essays? She's barmy." Ron opined around a mouth full of food.

"Yeah, I did see them. I hate to break it to you man, but I'm taking Hermione back off the table for nomination until she finds her footing this year. She can't keep up this level of homework frenzy for long; there aren't enough hours in the day. She was busy nearly around the clock doing that for seven classes. She's trying to do it now for twelve. It's not going to work. Until she realizes that and figures out something that works for her we'd be just making things worse if we brought her in. You have to realize that."

"But… we already brought in stinking Malfoy!"

"Sorry, man. It is what it is." 

 

As the year began creeping towards Halloween, the boys started becoming rather concerned about Hermione. She'd visibly lost weight, due to too many mealtimes spent reading rather than eating. Every free moment she had seemed to be spent in the library, or camped out in the common room after curfew surrounded by books. The dark circles under her eyes were becoming more pronounced as well. Worse than that though, she became snappish and irritable, nearly biting off your head if you so much as glanced her way. It was really beginning to irritate the rest of them. They were tired and slightly overwhelmed as well, but they weren't acting like she was. 

"I don't get it. She's not doing anything the rest of us aren't." Draco scoffed as he tried getting his own homework squared away. Now that quidditch practices had started up again he was beginning to fall behind. "She's not even on the quidditch team."

"Actually, she probably is. You know how much extra work she did even when we just had seven classes. She's probably trying to do the same level but for twelve classes and a full extra helping of muggle school." Millicent disagreed.

"Yeah, the rest of us are doing enough to learn and to pass. I've been putting a bit more effort into the muggle stuff because my final grade will come from what I turn in. Hermione is trying to get straight O's in every class, on every essay, and she's probably trying to perfectly ace the muggle stuff too…and on top of that is probably trying to do extra so she can brag that she's at least a year ahead of everyone, even with being petrified all last year." Harry added.

"Yeah, you know what she's like. She's probably doing just that." Theo agreed. 

"She's going to kill herself at the rate she's going." Neville said quietly.

"Yeah." Harry nodded. Ron blanched and looked at them both in horror.

"Relax, Ron. We're not going to let her." Neville decided.

"Yeah. It's time to stage an intervention." Harry nodded.

"What're we going to do?" Ron wondered.

"Steal her book at mealtimes and force her to eat. That by itself should help a lot." Harry suggested.

"Hit her with a sleeping charm when she tries to stay up late?" Neville added thoughtfully.

"Yeah, we've all seen her, nodding off over a pile a books while the rest of us go to bed, struggling to stay awake. Chances are, even if she's sent to bed for lights out, she probably just waits till bed check and then spends half the rest of the night reading by wand light in her bed. A few good meals and a few uninterrupted nights of sleep should at least make her stop growling at everyone. Whether she takes the hint and starts cutting back, well, that's something else altogether. Chances are we're going to have to do something a few more times this year before she either drops a class or two or cuts back on all the extra work and studying she's trying to do." Harry shook his head.

"If only she didn't have such a bug up her ass about maintaining solid O's in classwork, she'd be much better off. I had a talk with my mum before I left and told her I was no Percy, and I was only going to exert myself on the tests that count, so I didn't want to hear her shrieking at me if I only managed solid A's across the board until OWLs." Ron sighed.

"Yeah? How'd she take that?" Draco asked. He hadn't dared say such a thing to his parents.

"She screamed at me for an hour." Ron sighed. "She's as bad about grades as Hermione."

"That's rough. Loki, Remus and Sirius thought it was a good strategy, they just hinted that I'd better do really well on the OWLs and prove I wasn't just dicking around in class all year. How about you, Nev?"

"I got lectured too. My gran thinks I should maintain high grades year 'round. I've been pulling mostly A's too, so I'll probably hear it during the holidays and summer as well." he said gloomily. 

 

They started their intervention that day at lunch. Neville stole her book, Harry fended her off and kept her in her seat, and Ron filled a plate for her. She screamed at all of them and complained to the teachers. They told her to eat--the staff had in fact noticed her decline. She glared at all of them, stomped back to the table, ate a spoonful of mashed potatoes and demanded her book back at wand point, before stalking off to find an empty classroom to get some work done in.

They tried again at dinner. They hit her with a charm taught to them by Tom to make her extremely hungry. She nibbled on a bread roll while finishing ancient runes and then started on history.

At bedtime they hit her with a sleeping charm, put a ward on all her books that would last till morning and asked a prefect to put her to bed.  
They found out later she had woken up after two hours and snuck downstairs to keep working, and was found collapsed over her books in the morning.

They kept trying, and it was having a little bit of success. She stopped losing weight and her dark circles maintained at their current level. Then she told them they all needed to travel back in time on weekends.

"Uh…why?" Ron demanded.

"I need more time to study, that's why. I asked professor Lupin to send me back a few hours, but he said he was only allowed to send us as a group, so you all need to come with me."

"Fine. We'll do it if everyone else agrees."

It took her several days to convince the Slytherins they needed to travel back in time on the weekend, but they finally agreed if only to get her to stop nagging. Late afternoon Friday they met in the room they usually travelled in and Lupin sent them back six hours and met them at the other end. The Slytherins watched bemused as the Gryffindors hit Hermione with a sleeping charm, extra strength, while one transfigured a basic cot, and the other set up a goodie basket next to her bed with a note. Lupin said nothing.  
The rest of them left the room and watched as Lupin warded the door. 

"It will only open if she's slept at least four hours and ate everything in the basket."

"Good. Bloody menace, that girl. It shouldn't be this bloody hard to keep her from killing her stupid self." Ron growled. 

"She's going to be furious when she wakes up." Theo whistled.

"You know what? At this point we don't care. She's been snapping at everyone day and night for weeks now. We've tried to intervene and get her to be more sensible, but instead of cutting back a bit and taking care of herself she's trying to add more hours to her already overfull schedule and we've had enough." Harry growled.

"We're all at the garden right now. What are the rest of us going to do with all these extra hours?" Draco wondered.

"Since we're here we might as well all bang out a bit more homework. I'm coming to the end of my half-done essays." Theo suggested.

"Yeah, same here." Neville nodded.

"I'm going to see if I can unload another section for muggle studies." Harry decided.

"Yeah, me too. I wish I hadn't of picked such a long and stupid book." Millicent agreed glumly. 

"I need to catch up on my assignments. I've got quidditch practice a few times this week and then the game." Draco admitted. 

"That's why I quit the team."

"My father bought everyone new brooms. He'd kill me if I left after only a year." 

"Hogsmeade weekend can't get here too soon. I think we all need a break." Ron sighed.

"Too right, mate." Harry agreed.

"Maybe I'll take a nap…an extra six hours makes for a long day." Ron said after a sudden epiphany.

"Maybe we all should." Theo sighed.

"Time travel is for the birds." Millicent agreed.

 

"Quidditch today! I can't wait. It's gonna be weird for you, huh, being a spectator and all?" Neville asked Harry curiously.

"Definitely weird. This will actually be the first Gryffindor game I've ever gotten to watch."

"Game today and Hogsmeade tomorrow. It'll be good to have some time off." Seamus announced as he and Dean joined them at the table.

Hermione showed up to breakfast, carting her book bag, which was filled to overflowing. It made a resounding thud as she heaved it onto the table and immediately dove in to start removing books.

"Stupid quidditch. Do you know Professor McGonagall stopped me on the way down and actually forbade me to miss the game!" she growled in outrage. "Stupid waste of time if you ask me. I have more important things to do!"

"If you have to go to the game, why the hell did you bring all that?" Ron demanded.

"I'm going to try to get some work done, of course!"

"Which completely misses the point of making you go to the game."

"No one asked you." she told Ron coldly.

"You're barmy. Completely, sodding barmy. It now amazes me that I ever thought you were smart." 

"What? How dare you!"

Harry and Neville sighed, as did the rest of their yearmates. They all slid down the bench some to leave some space around the volatile couple. They all winced as what had started out as one of their usual annoying bickering sessions began to grow rather more bitter and acrimonious then was the norm.   
As their voices began rising, the rest began shoveling down their breakfast so they could head out to the pitch.

Ron and Hermione continued bickering and sniping at one another through the wait before the game, the game itself, and afterwards, which rather ruined the enjoyment of everyone who was sitting near them. 

Because of this, and because Gryffindor lost the game against Slytherin--though everyone agreed Ginny had played a good game, it was just a shame her arms weren't longer--the mood in Gryffindor tower that night was rather foul. 

It really helped no one's feelings on the matter, at least among the upper years, when Oliver Wood slunk in shortly before curfew, limping and sporting several love bites on his neck. Ginny had hidden away up in her dorm, devastated by the loss after all her bragging. Even Harry couldn't console her when he pointed out he'd lost his last game against Slytherin, but they'd still won the cup. 

"It's a team effort, over the whole season. Don't let a single loss get you down. It happens, and it's something you're going to have to learn to deal with occasionally, especially if you were serious about wanting to go professional." 

Ron, Harry and Neville fled soon after the end of the game to bury themselves in the garden for a few hours, while Hermione stormed off in a foul mood to hide in the library. The twins, Luna, Colin, Dennis and Lee showed up not long after. All their Slytherins were missing, celebrating their win.

"Actually, I'm glad all of you are here. We have our first prototype PDA…it's pretty rough, and it doesn't have a whole lot of functionality yet…and we're not sure what it's upper limit storage capacity is…"

"So keep using the notebooks for now, but add a copy of the day's work to the thingy and hope for the best?"

"Pretty much." Lee admitted. 

"We think we're definitely on the right track." Kendall sighed.

"There just never seems to be enough time, you know?" Bernard added. "We've got ten classes and OWLs this year. The professors are really laying it on." 

"Believe me, we know. This whole twelve OWL thing is kicking my arse. I don't know why I let these crazy bastards talk me into it." Ron agreed sourly.

"It's been tough, I'll admit, but come on, surely you've seen the benefits as well? Getting such a wide view of magic all at once has been sort of cool. It's all starting to mesh together in places, which is making all my classes easier." Neville protested.

"Well, yeah." Ron was forced to admit "It's still a pain." 

"It is kind of, in spite of the benefits. We've barely had time to spend on the project, and I haven't been to the uni in a globe even once since school started. I guess I'm going to have to save that for summers." Harry sighed.

"Save what for summers?" Tom asked as he came in.

"Why aren't you at your party?"

"Everyone's getting drunk, and most Slytherins are weepy drunks from what I've seen. I've no desire to get stuck with someone crying on my shoulder about their daddy issues again. Now, save what for summer?"

"The uni. I wish they made cubes for stuff like math and potions, stuff with rules, you know, so you could just pop it in your mouth and be done. Engineering…that's got a lot of math. It would make the whole project go so much faster if we weren't all trying to get a multi-disciplinary university level education as we're going."

"Huh. That's actually a good point. I wonder…" 

The rest watched Tom wander off, lost in thought.

"Think he'll manage it?" Kendall wondered.

"If anyone can, I'd put my money on him. Probably not anytime soon though. Nevermind that for now. Let me show you what we made." Lee replied.

Millicent, Theo and Draco appeared while the demonstration was still going on. Kendall went to them to show them what they'd missed. 

"You guys left the party too?"

"Eh. There'll be other parties, but times when we're all here and able to get something done are few and far between. We opted to come here instead." 

"Cool."

"So…we can just talk at these things and they'll record what we're saying?"

"Yeah, why is that so surprising? There's already dicta-quills. We just took the same principles and put them in here. You'll all have to get in the habit of speaking aloud what you want to record, but we thought it worth the trouble. Leaves your hands free for tinkering."

"What if there's a couple of us in the same room though?"

"Well, just like with the dictaquill, you'll have to attune your PDA to yourself. They've worked as planned so far. We've actually been using ours while testing them and tweaking them. It will only record your voice."

"Oh, okay."

Everyone was led through the process of attuning their pda, and then spent some time scrolling through files and poking around. 

"You've got everything we did so far from the old notebooks in there?"

"Well, yeah. That was kind of the point. Everyone still has their own section, but everyone can still see it. Only the people working in a particular department can add to their section or make changes to stuff that's already there. Some good stuff has come out of everyone commenting on each other's stuff though, so we made a commentary function. If it's not your section, you can add notes to an entry, but that's all."

"So just like the notebook, so far."

"Yes, but more streamlined." Bernard insisted.

"There's also an e-mail function. We finally got it working right. If we're in a place where we can't really talk on the mirror, we can still send each other messages."

Lee demonstrated, showed them the keyboard that would appear at the bottom when they opened the e-mail editor. "You can type out a message or speak it. You can toggle between voice and keyboard up here. Each department has an e-mail for official correspondence, and each individual has one that just for personal messages. You can send the same message to everyone, a few people or just one." 

"Brilliant."

Everyone played with the e-mail for a few minutes, sending each other short messages, just to be sure they knew how it worked and how to get from one thing to another in the device.

"What's this? Open Source Code Schematics?"

"Well, that's everything we did to make these. You can't change any of it directly, because well, obviously, but you can study it and learn from it. We figured as things got more complicated, different departments were going to need stuff that was more specific to their needs. In theory, you could all make your own little programs to help you, but to do that you'll need to know what we've already done so it will all work together."

"That probably won't happen anytime soon since everyone is so busy, but it's a thing for the future."

"It all seems pretty cool so far."

"There is one last thing. It's the only real application beyond the files and notes system and e-mail. It's not perfect, but we think we'll be able to upgrade it before too long."

"Well, let's see it."

"You got a new practice rock, right?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I didn't want to have to go outside. That's where we were testing it. You must have left an impression when you were first developing those mining charms. A couple of times we heard people muttering "what is it with the damn rocks?" while we were doing our tests." Lee told Harry with a laugh.

The whole group trooped into the mining group's workroom, where as promised, a very large rock stood in the center of the floor.

"Alright, watch this." Bernard said excitedly. He crouched down and held the PDA up in front of it and tapped the screen. They could see something forming up on the screen layer by layer.

"Alright, that should do it." 

He stood and took the PDA to the table and laid it down, tapping another point on the screen. A 3 dimensional map of the rock formed up over the screen, along with a key showing what the different shades represented.

The kids all clapped and cheered. 

"That's brilliant! We'll be able to better guide the miners right to what we want with this!"

The communications team beamed as they were congratulated and pounded on the back.

"I hate to say it, but I'm really glad Hedwig is off delivering a letter right now. She probably would have tried to tear these things apart. She absolutely hates the mirrors already. I'm going to have to remember to write a lot of letters and not just depend on this thing. She'll never forgive me otherwise." 

Everyone laughed again; Hedwig's temperament was well known in these parts, and they'd all taken advantage of her willingness to carry letters for them.  
With this new success, everyone was suddenly fired up to get at least a little work done in the time they had. Everyone scattered to their own workrooms to get started.

 

Ron looked around at the workroom and then at Harry. 

"So? I know you were working on explosives this summer, but you said we can't do them here, because we'd need an airless environment to properly test them and Tom hadn't gotten around to designing that yet…"

"Yeah. Shaped charges. I'm hoping my theory is sound and they could be of some use, but actually another problem had occurred to me."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Gravity. There might not be enough of it to keep the rock pieces that either get blasted or what have you in place. It might all just go floating away, it might float inside the tunnel, it might end up orbiting whatever asteroid we're working on and endangering the ship, or at least making takeoff and landing problematical if we have to go back a few times. Yeah, the action figures don't need to breathe, but it will probably hinder them in their work if there's rocks and dust flying everywhere. We really need to make a test chamber that mimics space so we can test this kind of stuff…. But anyway, I was thinking, we were working on drilling machines and all before, and I was thinking, we maybe need to add in a suction function or something to keep all the bits contained, except what would we do with it? Then it occurred to me, we'll need braces for the tunnels to make sure they stay open, we briefly talked about having a group of figures set up a base of sorts so they could just keep working and piling up whatever they're mining, and we could have either one ship or a couple of them going back and forth to unload the stuff as they get it… so they'd need little enclosed carts to hold the stuff, maybe tracks to run the little carts on… just different ideas… and that's when it occurred to me that it would be dumb to just waste the rock we're clearing out to get to the good stuff, right?"

"I guess, yeah."

"So, maybe we can suction up the excess rock as it's being broken up, and then run it through the machine to be made into stuff!"

"Like braces, enclosed carts, rail tracks and what have you?"

"Yeah. Waste not, want not. Maybe someday we'll even be able to get the figures to set up something in the base so that we can remotely reprogram them to deal with changing conditions… It was a thought."

"You have complicated thoughts, mate."

"So? What do you think?"

"Sounds like a plan, I guess. How would we even do that though?"

"Ah, well, I'm not really sure yet. We'll probably have to research… though I do have some leads."

"Yeah? From where?"

"Sirius' house, mostly. There was all kinds of weird magical items laying around. Tom was studying all of them, so I made him show me how to do so as well. As I was only a second year when this happened, I'm pretty sure he learned a lot more from it than I did, but I did learn some stuff. Anyway, there was a grandfather clock that made crossbow bolts on command to shoot at people--it was supposed to be a deterrent to thieves and unwanted guests--so I know it's possible, we just have to figure out how."

"What'd it make the bolts out of?"

"Dust and household pests, mostly. We just have to get the machine to accept all kinds of rock…but not gold, silver, titanium etc. Hmm. I wonder if that will make it much harder or not? We should probably do a survey of several likely asteroids so we know what to chew up and reform and what to leave be…"

"Sounds like a lot of work." 

"Most things that are worth it are, I've found."

"Yeah, I'm getting that."

Harry fetched the galaxy in a globe and sent it spiraling out to the asteroid belt. The boys drew their wands and began their survey. 

 

Harry's ideas had sent the two boys into a flurry of creativity. They spent the time until dinner doing a random sample survey of the asteroid belt and then spent dinner and the hours from then till curfew trying to sketch out machines that could process the rock, separate out ores and gases and store them in containers to be transported back to earth or remade into building materials for the 'base squad'. 

As they were fiddling over their latest attempt at making a mining processing and retrieval station, Ron looked at Harry and remarked "You know what we need? An artist."

"Yeah. We suck." Harry agreed with a laugh. "This thing looks like some kind of demented bug or something."

"We were saying we were going to need more people. Nev and Millie are busy recruiting from Herbology and CoMC for the biosphere research and planning committee. Lee's got his crew, the enchanters already found Millie's replacement, and are probably looking for more…we need more people than just us too." 

"Yeah, we do, I'll definitely agree there… the thing is, with both of us taking twelve OWLs, neither of us will be here most of the time to oversee things. I don't want a couple of newbies coming in and taking over or messing up what we've already done."

"Oh… right. That is kind of a problem, isn't it?" Ron sighed. He didn't want that either. The mining group was their baby.

"We still need somebody who can draw better than we can though."

"How about a compromise? Maybe we can convince Dean we really need a picture done and we can subcontract the artistic renderings to him, without getting him involved in the mining operation?"

"That could work, I guess. What are we going to tell him about why we need it?"

"I dunno. We'll make something up."

"Yeah, alright." 

 

Dean was rather bemused by their request, though he seemed to accept that it was supposed to be for a "space RPG set in a mining station" that Harry had promised to try to get made for his cousin, a muggle, who was into that sort of thing--though he did seem to keep looking at them speculatively while making his sketches. They were quite prepared to live with that, especially when he started adding his own touches beyond what they'd asked for, based on some sci-fi movies and computer games he'd seen. 

"You seem to know a lot about mining." Ron said leadingly.

"Not really, no." Dean laughed. "I have an uncle who works in factory processing ore though. I was there once when I was a kid. My mum was on a kick to get me looking at practical jobs because I told her I wanted to be an artist. She didn't think there was any future there. She's calmed down some since my gramps started pointing out that artists aren't just starving weirdos in garrets being all bohemian in Paris, that they work on sets for plays, for advertising companies, car companies, movie sets, television…all sorts of places. That was all before Hogwarts. Now she's not sure what to think." he admitted. "So, yeah, I got an up-close look at some of the machinery in the processing plant, but that was all. I wasn't even sure what most of it was for until you started explaining what all you wanted on this thing. I'm just sketching the bits I remember in, what I hope, is sort of the right place based on your descriptions."

"Oh. Cool." 

"You're really gonna give me two galleons for this?"

"Well, you're taking time to do me a favor, and I'll just make my cousin repay me is all. He's the one that wanted it. None of his friends draw any better than we do."

Dean glanced at their weird-bug-looking attempts and snickered. "No offense, you two, but you really suck."

Ron and Harry just shrugged. It was true after all.

 

"Hogsmeade! Finally! I can't wait. Fred and George said there's all kinds of cool places there--prank shops, candy, all kinds of stuff!"

"Butterbeer too, and there's a tea shop or something. Bookstore… Hermione'll like that." Neville agreed.

"Come to that, where is Hermione? She's going to miss Hogsmeade if she doesn't get a move on." Harry noted.

"Yeah, breakfast is almost over." Neville noted.

"Eh, she'll show up eventually, I'm sure. There's carriages going up and down all day. Some of the upper years only go for a bit, or go down later." Harry shrugged.

"This is our first time though!" 

"Maybe she decided to sleep in? I dunno."

"No offense, Ron, but I'm not waiting on her."

"Well… yeah. Me either. It's not like she bothered telling any of us that she was going to go late or anything." Ron agreed. "I've been looking forward to this too much to miss it."

Harry and Neville noted he kept glancing up the stairs as they waited their turn to leave, but neither of them said anything.  
As they reached the door, they could see the twins, Lee, Bernard, Kendal and Tom getting in to a carriage together.  
Millie, Theo and Draco joined them as they were leaving the castle.

"Hey. So, where're we headed first?"

"CANDY!" Ron and Draco both said gleefully, before stopping to glare at one another.

"I need more ink and parchment." Millicent announced.

"Book store." Theo added.

"I kinda wanted to see the Shrieking Shack." Neville admitted.

"Oh! Hogshead. We could get some firewhiskey!" Ron and Draco both said, once more of the same mind about things.

"They're not going to give you firewhiskey, you dolt." Millicent sighed.

"That's what you think! I happen to have a cunning plan." Draco objected.

Millie and Theo both groaned, and the Gryffindors all looked at Draco skeptically, a fact he noted and seemed greatly offended by.

"Can you at least save the cunning plan until nearer the end of the day? That way, when it goes badly it at least won't ruin our trip?" Theo sighed.

"What makes you so sure it's going to go badly? I told you it was a _cunning_ plan!"

"Yeah, save it for the end…and tell us before you head in. I want to see this plan in action." Harry spoke up.

"So you can be amazed?"

"Sure." Harry agreed, voice dry. 

 

"For Merlin's sake, would you lighten up, Pansy? We're out of the castle for the day! We can go shopping! No class! Do try to enjoy yourself." Tracey Davis sighed.

"Sorry, girls… it's just, I always pictured my first Hogsmeade visit would be spent on my darling Draco's arm…we could browse the shops together, and he'd buy me a few presents, and we'd make fun of the Gryffindorks together and mock their terrible fashion sense. Then, to round out the day we'd go to Madame Puddifoot's--a positively darling tea shop my mum told me all about. She and my dad used to go there when they were still in school together." she explained with a sigh. "It was going to be so perfect! Instead, it's just an ordinary day, Draco darling is nowhere to be seen, and I don't have enough pocket money to get those fabulous robes we saw. It's terrible." 

"Ah, well, you uh, might have spoken too soon." Daphne Greengrass said with some amusement. "Your Darling Draco is right over there." 

Pansy turned, a smile lighting her face, only for it to fall comically when she saw who he was with.

"He's here with Potter?"

"And Millie and Theo…oh, and Weasley and Longbottom as well." 

"Why on earth is he with them?" Pansy hissed angrily to the rest of them. 

"I would think it was obvious. Because of that whole twelve OWL thing that's who he's spending most of his time with these days. I do wonder where Granger is though."

"I would think that was obvious. She's in the library being weird like she always is." Blaise Zabini sniffed, obviously bored with the conversation. 

"Speaking of the library. I've only seen that lot in there a few times since school began. Did you ever figure out where they were hiding?"

"No." Pansy said bitterly. "I asked the portraits but they were less than helpful. I even tried following them a few times, but they always just seem to disappear. Probably using secret passages or something." She watched the sextet wander into another shop, seemingly in high spirits, and crossed her arms. "Somebody must know where they keep hiding. At this point I'd pay money for someone to find them!"

"Honestly, so would I." Zabini sighed. "If only so I can beg them to take me with them." he added under his breath. 

"How much?"

Pansy and Blaise turned to look at Crabbe and Goyle curiously. "How much what?"

"Would you pay someone to find them?"

"What? You mean you know?"

"No. We can look for them though." 

Pansy and Blaise both rolled their eyes.

"A galleon." Pansy offered absently.

"You too?" Goyle asked Blaise.

"Yeah, sure, why not. In fact, make it twenty. I can afford it." he replied, waving his hand airily. Pansy glared at him for the dig.

"Each, right?"

Pansy and Blaise rolled their eyes again, unable to believe they were still harping on the subject.

"Sure, fine." Pansy scoffed. 

"Yeah, whatever." 

Pansy straightened, her eyes still on the shop Draco had disappeared into. "I'm going to go remind Draco he has a girlfriend he's been neglecting!"

"You two aren't dating." Crabbe pointed out helpfully.

Pansy just looked at him in pity. "Since when have I let a little thing like that stop me?" 

 

"But Professor!"  
"I'm sorry, Miss Granger, but if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade you should have left this morning with the rest of the students. It takes nearly an hour to get down the mountain. By the time you actually make it to the village, you'll just have to turn around and come back! I mean, really, Miss Granger, it is nearly four o' clock! Students are expected to be back from the village by six!"

"But Professor!"

"I am sorry. You'll just have to wait until the next Hogsmeade weekend." McGonagall said firmly. "If I may ask, just what was it you were doing that made the trip to the village so completely slip your mind?"

"Iwassleeping."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I was…sleeping."

McGonagall gave her a stern look over her glasses, and her lips pressed together in a thin, white line.

"If I may be so bold, Miss Granger, I would have to say you probably needed the extra sleep far more than you needed a trip to the village… though a day away from your studies would not have gone amiss." she added with another disapproving look. "Do try to take better care of yourself, Miss Granger. I have tried to keep my interference minimal thus far, but if you do not get hold of yourself I will be recommending that you drop some of your classes and cease using the device that allows you to attend extra. That you would drive yourself to the point of collapse tells me that you apparently cannot handle the pressure."

Hermione reared back in horror. "NO! You can't!"

McGonagall drew herself up and her eyes flashed. "I CAN, and what's more I WILL should I think it necessary! You will not listen to your teachers or your friends, all of whom have been becoming increasingly concerned for you as the weeks roll by. If you will not take care of yourself and stop pushing yourself to such ridiculous lengths, you will leave me no choice but to force the matter!"

"But Professor!"  
"But nothing. That is my final word on the matter."

Hermione's hands clenched at her sides in impotent rage and her eyes filled with tears, which she determinedly blinked away, before spinning on her heel and stalking off. She made it as far as the second floor before the tears began rolling down her face in spite of her best efforts to stop them. She staggered to the nearest window and sunk down on the ledge to have a good cry. 

"Hermione? What's going on? Did something happen in Hogsmeade?" 

Hermione glanced up and saw Ginny and Luna staring at her in concern. When Ginny's question registered she began crying harder.

"Did my stupid brother do something? Want me to hex him for you?"

Hermione tried to answer, but she was crying too hard. The girls settled on either side of her to rub her back until she managed to pull herself back under control.

"I was serious. I'll hex him but good."

"Ron didn't do anything."

"What happened then? All the books already sold from the book store?"

"I didn't get to go to Hogsmeade."

"What? Why? Didn't your parents sign the permission slip?"

"Yes, they did. I was asleep. I tried to go down just now, but McGonagall said I didn't have enough time before curfew to make it." 

"You missed it?" Ginny repeated disbelievingly. "You missed it? Because you were sleeping?" 

Hermione glared at her. She felt awful enough about the whole thing already without her making it worse. Remembering the end of her conversation with the professor made her tear up again.

"Hey. I didn't mean anything by it… I mean you were sleeping and you missed it…but hey! There'll be other chances, right!?" 

"I'm upset about that, but there was something else." She told the two girls about the rest of her conversation, and by the end of it she was shaking with rage once more.

"I mean, really! Who does that odious cow think she is anyway? I'm pulling straight O's, and it's me she wants to drum out of the program! It's ridiculous! The others' grades are all over the place, a few E's, but it's mostly A's. A's! And it's me who gets criticized!"

"Mostly because you've been trying so hard to prove that you're smart that everyone now thinks you're an idiot." Luna said, rather matter-of-fact.

"EXCUSE ME?!" Hermione hissed in outrage.

"She's got a point." Ginny shrugged. "So the rest of them are pulling A's, so what? It's only the OWL that counts, so long as they keep passing. Ron pretty much told mum he wasn't likely to be getting higher. She wasn't best pleased, but then mum's a bit barmy about stuff like that. I hate to say it, but she's probably where Percy gets it." 

"Why even bother trying for twelve OWLs if he wasn't planning on doing well?"

"He is planning on doing well. On the OWL. The rest is just busy work, and unlike you, the rest of them were smart enough to realize that."

"She's right, you know. You're doing two full course loads, trying to maintain perfect grades across the board, and also trying to push yourself ahead of everyone else by months if not years. What are you hoping to accomplish by doing that?"

"I'm trying to distinguish myself!"

"Collapsing from hunger or exhaustion or getting drummed out of the program isn't the distinction I think you're going for. At this rate it's likely the only one you'll get." 

"You have quite enough going on without trying to push yourself further. I think that's the part that's really hurting you." Luna said quietly.

"Definitely. Ron and Harry and Neville, I keep hearing them complain they don't have time to do much else than go to class and do homework, but they still find an hour here and there to hang out in the common room, to sleep and eat. You need to stop the extra reading and stuff you're doing and just concentrate on here and now."

"But I…!"

"Hermione…when you picture your future, what do you see?"

"What does this…?"

"Just answer the question."

"I don't know…myself, high up in the Ministry, dictating policy and bringing the wizarding world kicking and screaming into the modern era. A family once I've made my mark, I suppose. The usual. Why?"

"Wait a second…what do you mean bringing the wizarding world kicking and screaming into the modern era?" Ginny interrupted.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I would think that would be obvious." 

"Not hardly. Explain."

Hermione huffed and shook her head, before looking at Ginny like she was just a bit dim. "Wizards are so bloody backwards and wrongheaded about…well, about everything, really."

"Like what?" Ginny demanded. "And what do you mean wizards? You talk like you're not a witch yourself!"

"Well of course I'm a witch, but I’m muggle born."

"And?"

"Well, I think I have a better view of these things than well…"

"Than what?" 

"Ugh! This is just what I mean! Wizards are so…quaint and backwards and well, silly!"

"Really." Ginny remarked, her voice quietly dangerous. "And what are the backwards things you're in such a hurry to change?"

"Well, everything, really. There's never been a muggle born Minister, if you can believe it! They're also barred from serving on the Wizengamot!"

"Well, yes. It is the same in muggle Britain for immigrants, though I’m not sure about the house of commons… Hmm. I should probably look into that." Luna said in her usual dreamy voice.

Hermione sputtered in outrage. "Excuse me! I happen to be a British citizen!"

"On the muggle side. In the wizarding world you're considered a first generation immigrant. Our worlds were separated centuries ago, and we have distinct spheres and our own governing bodies. When you accepted your invitation to Hogwarts you essentially agreed to emigrate to the magical world and become a citizen of it."

"That's ridiculous!"

"That's the law. That's the very foundation of the Ministry. If you were to just try to eradicate the muggleborn's status of immigrant, you wouldn't just be opening up further job opportunities for yourself, you would essentially be eradicating secrecy to some extent and saying that we no longer have status as a separate but equal worlds. You would, in fact be destroying the very Ministry, and the very position you covet by doing so."

"Oh for goodness sake!" Hermione scoffed.

"She's right." Ginny shrugged. "The Ministry gets its authority from a magically binding agreement that they will govern the affairs of wizards as a separate thing from the affairs of muggles and keep magic, the wizarding world and all the beings that inhabit it secret."

"It's the very foundation of our present society. If you simply heedlessly change the parameters without taking that sort of thing into account, well, frankly you're going to make rather a muck of things." 

The look on Hermione's face said she was just humoring the both of them.

"What else do you think is so backwards?" Ginny demanded.

"Everything, really. House elves, for example. Wizards are utterly barbaric. Muggles eradicated slavery ages ago and…"

"They're not slaves. They're symbiotic…like cats, really."

"See! That's just what I mean! Wizards keep a sentient species as slaves, thinks nothing of it, and when their barbarity is pointed out they justify it by comparing the poor things to dumb beasts."

Luna sighed. "First of all, you aren't giving animals enough credit…and secondly what I meant is that they domesticated themselves because they saw a benefit in it." 

"Oh, that's always the first recourse of a slave owner, isn't it? Claim it's their idea and that they like it!"

"That isn't what she said." Ginny pointed out. 

"No, it isn't. What I said was they chose to bind themselves to wizards, because it makes their lives both easier and more fulfilling." 

"Oh, that is a load of…"

"Have you ever actually spoken to a house elf, or did you simply learn of their existence, make some assumptions and decide you were right? Don't bother answering, as I already know the answer."

"How dare…"

"Because if you just blithely swan off to 'help' the house elves, you're probably going to end up killing a fair few of them."

"That's ridiculous!"

"They bound themselves to wizards long ago, because for them the binding serves them the same as a wand--which has part of a magical creature in it--does for wizards. A bound house elf can snap their fingers and do most anything they set their minds to. Here at Hogwarts, they're bound to the castle itself, unless they choose to leave and find a family to bind themselves to. Half the house elves in the castle at any given time are actually ones bound to families. They follow the children of the family to the school, and split their time between here and their house if the parents have need of them. They like to work. They need to work, in fact. Work is to house elves what gold is to goblins."

"They're tortured!"

"They do that to themselves, if they feel they've failed or dishonored their family in some way. I've known many families with house elves, and I've never seen one actually tell them to punish themselves, that's something they do on their own. Sometimes the only way to get them to stop is to be firm with them and tell them they should stop or they won't be fit for work in the morning. A house elf who lives with a family of slobs is a happy, happy elf, who brags about all the work they have to do. They're usually quite envied by the others. Unlike you, you see, I have actually spoken to them, asked them about their lives, their culture and whether they were happy. They are. They see a free elf as a rather sad creature. It means they failed, or did something bad. The other elves quite despise the free elf. They also feel rather poorly towards an elf who can't work or make themselves useful in some way. It makes them a clonah, or "not elf", a thing, a being, with no purpose. It's a shameful thing to them. Because they bound themselves so long ago, and the process has continued over generations, they now sicken if they can't bind themselves, whether to a family or a place. It changed them you see. Now, if they aren't bound they not only get fearfully depressed, but their magic has no outlet. It kills them eventually." 

Ginny sighed. She could tell by looking at her that Hermione was pretty much dismissing everything they said. The girl could out stubborn a rock, and she really was as mulish about always being right as her brother said. It was pointless to continue. 

"We're getting off the subject. Luna, why'd you ask about her future?"

"I was just wondering how she thought she was going to get that future if she convinces everyone she's too dumb to take care of herself, and alienates everyone who cares about her."

"I haven't been…and I am not too dumb…you..!"

"Everyone thinks you must be. You're so exhausted, biting everyone's head off when they try to talk to you, not eating. When is the last time you had a conversation with any of your friends that consisted of more than "leave me alone, I'm busy" or something to do with your eating and sleeping habits?"

"Why is everyone harping on this? No one would treat a boy this way…stupid, sexist, backward…"

"Well, that's true, though not in the way you seem to think. Witches and wizards have always had equal rights. We did so long before the muggles ever thought to consider it, and as I understand it they still haven't quite reached the point we did right from the beginning."

"Yeah, so if anyone is backwards in this case it's the muggles." Ginny agreed, stung.

"Ginny…your mother is a housewife." 

"Yeah? And?" 

"She doesn't have a job."

"Yes she does. She's a housewitch. She takes care of everything except money, that's dad's part in things. I'm the youngest of seven children, and we're all smart, healthy and going places. She's got the most important job there is."

"She doesn't have a career."

"At the moment her career is being a mother, keeping a home and providing most of the food on our table with the farm. Once I'm out of school she'll probably do something else…if she wants to, that is. Honestly, after raising all of us, if she wants to take it easy after, no one will blame her in the least. She could just continue running the farm. Once all of us are out of the house she'll have way too much food for just her and dad. She could sell off the excess and bring in a nice sum every season. Between that and dad's job at the ministry the two of them will be sitting pretty."

"The thing you seem to be overlooking is that, generally witches and wizards live longer than muggles. Witches generally have children young so they can get the important stuff out of the way before worrying about career goals."

"Yeah, those who only want to focus on their careers, like McGonagall, or Madame Bones usually stay single and don't have any children. Usually the only ones who would put off having children while still being married would be professional athletes, like quidditch players. You can only do that for so long, and it's best done while you're young. That's what I'm going to do. It's my plan, anyway."

"So you see, if you had been a boy, you're right, you would have been treated quite differently, but not at all in the way you're thinking. If you'd been a boy, McGonagall would have confronted you long before this point."

"Yeah, if anything, witches are considered more sensible and responsible than wizards, and are expected to be. Strong woman, strong family and all that." 

"Because you're a witch, everyone assumed you'd realize you were doing too much and would take steps to correct your behavior. If anything, McGonagall came down on you so hard because she's mortified to see you acting like a teenage wizard!"

"It's true. In fact, most of the girls feel like that. You're a witch, you're supposed to be smart, and you're the oldest person in your class. Any one of those things should have been enough to steer you straight, instead you're acting like some bonehead, blowing off your friends and missing Hogsmeade!" Ginny scoffed. "Frankly, it's embarrassing when the likes of Ron are being more sensible than you! You're giving witches everywhere a bad name!" 

Luna's bemused stare, and Ginny's look of complete disgust were too much for Hermione in her already overwrought state and she started crying again.

 

The students came tumbling in from Hogsmeade over the next hour or so, all of them breathless and laughing, weighed down with packages and full of cheer. 

"Hey there, Hermione. You're back already, huh? Hogsmeade not to your liking?" Dean asked curiously as he took his spot at the table.

"She probably never left the bookshop." Seamus laughed. 

"Don't mind them. We went all over. Next time we can show you all the cool places there." Lavender offered. She seemed to be in especially high spirits for some reason. "Gladrags has some lovely robes, and a fur-lined cloak I would adore…sadly, I didn't have enough to get it. I'll mention it to my mum. Maybe she can swing it for Christmas or something."

"Look at what I got!" Parvati held out her hand. Her nails were all painted. As she watched the colors slowly changed to another. "No matter what you're wearing it coordinates with your outfit and only morphs into colors that will complement it. Brilliant, isn't it?"

"Oh! That reminds me! We, that is all the girls from the dorm, chipped in for this! Here!"

"You bought me shampoo?" Hermione asked with some confusion.

"It's a special shampoo with added conditioning potion that's supposed to help tame unmanageable hair. We were thinking of getting Harry some too, but well, we decided we liked his windswept look." Lavender giggled. 

Hermione looked at the bottle in her hand in consternation, but still, they'd gotten her a present…

"Um, thanks. I didn't end up going to Hogsmeade, so…"

"Yeah, we kind of figured. We tried waking you up before we left but you were dead to the world."

"When we didn't see you in the village we figured you were probably still sleeping." 

"Oh. Um…so…you seem especially chipper, Lavender. Did something happen?"

Lavender's cheeks pinked. She pressed her hands to her face and squealed excitedly. "I went on a bit of a date with Ron!" 

Hermione blinked, and then again when the words just didn't compute.

"You went on a date…with Ron?" she repeated.

Parvati eyed her, but Lavender just nodded and wriggled in her seat a bit. 

"Parvati and Padma went to the stationary shop, but I wanted to see Madame Puddifoot's tea shop. Ron and the rest of the boys came in to look around and I mentioned it to him and he suggested we go together! So we did! EEEE! It was so romantic! And everything was so pretty! We had hot chocolate and shared a little plate of tiny cakes!" she sighed, eyes dreamy. "It really is such a tragedy that Professor Lockhart turned out to be evil. Ron became so dashing after he took him in hand." 

"I see. How nice for you." Hermione managed to choke out.

Parvati's gaze sharpened a bit, but Lavender just squealed again and got lost in daydreams. 

It took Hermione a moment before she found her voice again. "And where were Harry and Neville while you two were on your…date?"

"Neville tried to get Hannah Abbot to go with him…and she did, but I don't think she realized what he wanted and she brought her friends along. Hufflepuffs, right?"

"And Harry?" 

"Oh, he was there too. Not on a date though, so don't worry. He, Bulstrode, and Nott got a table together."

"Yeah, and then Pansy Parkinson's stupid gang joined them because she was busy on a date with Malfoy."

"Yeah. All the tables were filled with couples, but they were in a booth so they just crowded in with them."

"You might want to keep an eye on that Greengass girl." Lavender told Hermione earnestly. "She was being pretty friendly to Harry."

"She's his cousin." 

"She's a pureblood, and they're not that closely related." Parvati warned. 

 

The noise in the great hall increased as another wave of students came in. Hermione and the others turned to look and saw Ron and Malfoy in the center of the newest crowd, which seemed to be having a bit of fun at their expense to judge by the sour look on both their faces. As they neared the edge of the tables the group split in two--Slytherins and a few Ravenclaws going one way, and the Gryffindors heading towards all of them. The twins, Lee, Ron and Neville were there, but she saw no sign of Harry. She spotted him then. He'd been behind the rest of the crowd, walking slower, deep in conversation with his new 'brother'. They lingered for a moment so Harry could remove several packages from his (expanded) pockets, which he handed over, though he kept hold of a few of them. The boys separated, and Harry went to the Ravenclaw table and stopped to give something to Luna Lovegood and chat with her for a few minutes. She was curious, but she ended up turning around to see what was going on behind her. Ron and Lavender were sitting rather close together, and they were being positively sickening. Lavender kept twirling her hair and batting her eyes--honestly! She looked like she was having a seizure! Ron was no better--he kept winking and giving Lavender a smarmy grin every time she giggled at something inane he said. Hermione's eyes narrowed at him. At the rate he was going, he likely had a lucrative future ahead of him as a used car salesman.


	3. The great clubhouse search

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione gets her act together and finally notices the boys aren't around much. Last Hogsmeade weekend before exams/ end of term.

Hermione woke feeling refreshed and able to face the day. Since deciding to try to keep a more realistic schedule and cut back on her extra reading and studies to focus on the here and now, she had noted a huge difference. It had been a struggle at first. She had gotten so used to keep ridiculously long hours and reading long into the night that she'd had to force herself to simply go to sleep and not wait till bed check had passed to light up her wand and keep working.

It had been a similar struggle to set aside her work to eat, but she'd done so. It had taken her a few days to be able to eat normal portions again; she'd gotten so used to eating little more than a piece of toast here and there while trying to read that her stomach no longer seemed to know what to do with food now that she was giving it some. She had backslid a time or two, but it had quickly caught up to her each time. 

It had been a battle, but now, after weeks of struggle, keeping a normal schedule was starting to feel, well, normal again. She was caught up on her homework, she'd made a dent in her muggle work. She had her exam study schedule worked out for the next three weeks. Next week was a Hogsmeade weekend--which she was determined not to miss this time. She was well rested, back to her former weight and all was right with the world.

She was in such high spirits, she practically skipped down to breakfast, eager to greet the day.   
She was halfway through her meal when Lavender and Parvati arrived. Lavender looked around glumly before she began filling her plate.

"Did you see the boys on your way down? They're going to miss breakfast at this rate."

"It's Saturday. They probably won't show up for it."

"I can't wait till next weekend. Maybe I'll finally be able to spend some time with Won-Won."

_"Won-Won?"_ Hermione mouthed incredulously. Parvati just shrugged, but she looked equally disgusted.

"What do you mean they're not going to show up for it though? Ron never misses a meal."

"I think they must be grabbing something to eat from the kitchen or something. Haven't you noticed they're not around most weekends?"

In truth, she hadn't, not really. She'd been too tired and swamped the first half of the year to spare any worry for what the rest of them were doing. She'd only recently started to take note of the world around her again. 

"So…they disappear every weekend?"

"Just about. Oh, we see the whole group of them in the library every now and then, sitting together and working through a mountain of homework, but that's it really."

Hermione looked around carefully. Ron, Harry and Neville were missing from the table, as were the twins, their friend Lee and the Creevey brothers. A quick glance at Ravenclaw showed Luna was missing, as were those two older Ravenclaws she'd seen with all of them after the last Hogsmeade weekend. From Slytherin, there was no sign of Bulstrode or Nott, no Tom Riddle, Draco Malfoy…and no Crabbe and Goyle, oddly enough.

Ginny came in not long after from quidditch practice. She set aside Harry's broom and descended on the remains of breakfast like a starving locust. 

"We've been out there since the crack of dawn. I'm starving!" she growled off Hermione's look. 

"Where do they go though? I mean…even if Harry did have a secret clubhouse somewhere, surely someone has found it and disbanded it by now!"

"Hardly." Ginny scoffed. "I was looking for it last year, and I asked the twins to help me. They found it, and started going there too, instead of telling me where they all were at!" 

"Malfoy's only been disappearing with them since earlier this year. I still don't get that at all." Parvati admitted. "And Crabbe and Goyle have been since just after last Hogsmeade weekend. Padma overheard Pansy Parkinson complaining about it. Apparently she and Blaise Zabini offered them money to find the place. They did, but they were sworn to secrecy and so couldn't tell them where it was. They refused to pay them, but they complained to Snape who said they had to as the deal they made was only to find them not disclose the location. He said it was a good lesson for the future to be more careful of the deals they made. Pansy had to pay them each a galleon, and Blaise had to give them twenty!" 

"Crabbe and Goyle found them? How? I was looking all over before I got petrified, and we never did find where they were going!"

"It isn't fair! I'm their sister! Why does Luna, Colin and Dennis get to go but I don't?!" 

"From what I understand there's a group of Ravenclaws who have been trying to get answers from Lovegood and those other two, but so far they haven't had any luck. They've all started subscribing to the Quibbler to try to keep an eye on what they're up to, but they can't make sense of it."

"Yeah, apparently the last thing that came out was something by Harry and that Tom Riddle about muggle landfills of all things."

"Landfills? What on earth? Why are they concerning themselves with garbage?"

"Apparently muggles produce so much garbage that the whole country could be overrun with their filth someday. They pointed out that, not only is it an environmental hazard and a worry for the future, but it's just more land that muggles are unfairly taking up that could be used by wizards. Sirius Black and some others that weren't named have started an environmental company. They bought up some muggle landfills that aren't going to be used anymore--cheap, because they're full of garbage and also toxic and dangerous to humans. They put up fences and muggle repelling charms to keep people away while they're working, and put up some illusions so helicopters overhead don't get too interested in what they're doing. A whole slew of new jobs opened up because of it. They're sorting the landfill and recycling all the muggles' garbage into component parts and selling it back to the muggles. They've only been at it a month or two, but they've already made a lot of money in the muggle world, which they're then bringing in to the wizarding world. It's being hailed as a great boon for wizards, since too often money leaves the wizarding world to go to the muggle world, not the other way around. There were some quotes from the folks they hired to help them clear the landfill. They said it's kind of disgusting at first, but once you get used to it it's fairly easy work and pays real well. More people are lining up to get jobs. He's already looking into buying a few more defunct landfills. He says once they've cleared them, cleaned them and made them safe again that they're going to build wizarding villages in them, and there's talk of an entertainment district! It's really exciting."

"But…what are they doing with all the garbage?"

"Like I said, rendering it into component parts. They're taking all the plastic to one location and making it into petroleum, barreling it up and selling it back to the muggles. Glass they've been making into sand and selling it to muggles that are trying to fight beach erosion and stuff like that. Apparently there's gold and stuff in some electronics. They've been stripping that out and piling it up until they have enough to make ingots and selling that to muggles too. They've been doing the same with iron, copper, and all sorts of stuff. Anything organic gets piled together, mulched and turned into compost. Anything dangerous or that they can't use gets vanished. In fact, they've even found use for the fumes coming off the places. Apparently muggles use methane, so they've been gathering it up in tanks and selling them that too!" 

"That's…rather clever, actually. What about secrecy though?"

"What about it? The muggles wanted to offload their garbage dumps. An eccentric rich guy wants to buy them, what do they care? Plus, they're far from muggle settlements, relatively speaking. No one really goes there--why would they? They're full of garbage and smell badly. The muggles are already so used to trying not to think about the places that they'll hardly notice when they more or less disappear." 

"Aren't they worried about the muggles wondering where all the stuff is coming from?"

"That's why we have muggle liaisons. Duh."

"We have muggle liaisons to oversee _muggle technological progress"_

"For the purpose of secrecy." Parvati snapped back. "Don't be condescending." 

Hermione blinked a few times and tried to modulate her tone. "I just meant that they're not really in the business of fencing recycled goods."

"No, they're not, but they're in different offices and industries that can buy and sell such items and have it blend in for the most part."

"I don't understand! What are they doing? Studying the castle, studying weather patterns and now this? They've decided, or at least Harry's godfather has, to go into Environmental clean-up? What's going on?"

The other girls just shrugged. 

Hermione sat back and considered all she knew, and recalled Luna asking her about her future and wanting to know how she planned to drag wizards into the modern age. For so long she'd been under the impression that wizards were all but useless really--yes, they had great power, but otherwise the muggles were far superior in every way. They were like children, and needed to be led by a firm hand. _Her_ hand if at all possible. 

The recent spate of "discoveries" had made her question that somewhat. Every time Harry's group pointed out a problem, the Ministry, or in this case Sirius Black, seemed to be on hand immediately afterwards with a solution. Wizards might be found because muggles are obsessed with weather predicting? No problem. They already had a solution ready to roll out based on other research that had already been done "a long time ago". Wizards need more space because the magical villages are disappearing? No problem. Just clear out landfills and make the muggles buy their garbage back from us. We'll make money and have big tracks of land no one else wants. It was infuriating, really. If they kept solving problems, there would be nothing left for her to fix in order to make her mark when she finally got high enough in the Ministry to dictate policy! 

"I've had enough of this nonsense! I'm going to find them." 

"I'm coming with you." Ginny said immediately.

"We will too." Lavender volunteered. "I know Padma will want in as well. She's one of the Ravenclaws that's been trying to get something out of Lovegood." 

"Didn't both of you look for them before? What makes you so sure you'll find them this time? Especially if they don't want to be found?"

"Because I have more information now that I did before. Ron and I were searching the rooms in the used parts of the castle. If Harry and Neville had found a secret passage that let them into one of the unused parts, letting them bypass the dusty corridors in between which would have easily alerted someone that they were back there, that's why we couldn't find them before! In fact, the secret passage probably passes near the restricted section, which is why your brothers thought Harry was in there. I tried plotting Harry, but he just showed up as being in Hogsmeade, where his mail drop was. I never thought to plot Neville. The last time I tried, he was unplottable. They probably did that after the twins found them. We just need to search all the dusty corridors that are off the beaten track, and I bet we'll find them easily."

"Eww! I don't want to spend the day covered in dust and cobwebs!" Lavender complained.

"So we'll cast cleaning charms as we go. Honestly, that will make it easier to keep track of where we've already searched."

Suddenly fired up with determination, she hurriedly finished her breakfast and was off like a shot. Thought they'd leave her out of things, did they? Well, they had another thing coming. She had big plans. The boys could fall in line or get out of her way.

"HEY!"

"WAIT FOR US!" 

They had already been searching for an hour when they ran into another group of girls coming the opposite way. The leaders stopped in front of one another, crossed their arms and sneered, while their respective entourages spread out behind them.

"Granger."

"Parkinson." 

"Been rolling around in the dirt, I see. How…unsurprising." 

"So…I hear Crabbe and Goyle managed to trick you out of money." Hermione calmly riposted. "How…amusing." 

"Sweet Merlin, would you two hurry it up? I don't want to waste my entire Saturday looking for Harry!" Ginny grumbled.

"They're not in the clock tower, the music room, or any of the regular classrooms or study rooms. Not the library either. We already checked." 

Astoria Greengrass, younger sister of Daphne Greengrass, who was in Ginny's year, grumbled back. Beside her, Daphne, Tracy Davis and Olivia Moon, and Sofia Davenport, the members of "Pansy's gang" shifted slightly in embarrassment at having been caught out. 

Hermione smirked at Pansy. "How droll. Out looking for Draco darling, are we? Hmmm…I wonder what it says about you that he keeps hiding from his girlfriend." 

"Like you have room to talk Granger…oh, but that's right, isn't it? You didn't make it to Hogsmeade…and no one missed you at all." 

"Which just shows how little you know." Hermione remained calm, though the reminder of Ron and Lavender's date still stung.

"Here's an idea. We're all looking for them. We should join forces and cover more ground." Padma spoke up.

"Sounds good to me. I'm already sick of running around the castle." Olivia agreed. "Where all have you searched so far?"

"We're concentrating on the unused portions of the castle. We think they're using secret passages to bypass the corridors, which is why no one's found them yet." 

"No luck so far?"

"No. We've been cleaning as we go so we'd know where we already searched."

"If you think they're using secret passages, why aren't we searching the dungeons? That's where they were looking for them, right?" Tracey spoke up.

"It would explain why no one found them…well, other than Crabbe and Goyle. No one's been looking for them in the dungeons."

"Are we actually sure they have a secret clubhouse? So far all we found were a bunch of Ravenclaws brewing up stuff to make you smarter to sell to desperate kids at exam time."

"Really?" Daphne asked in interest.

"It's all been confiscated. I reported them to the teachers." Hermione sniffed.

"We found some Hufflepuffs with some 'recreational herbs' from the NEWT greenhouses, and a Hufflepuff fight club." Pansy offered. 

The Gryffindor girls gaped at them, unable to wrap their minds around a Hufflepuff fight club. The words didn't compute. 

"You turned them in, I hope?" Hermione said faintly.

"Of course not! You don't sell out fellow students to the teachers!" 

"Not unless it benefits you in some way." 

"Exactly!" 

"That sort of thing isn't allowed! It says so in Hogwarts a history!"

"It says the Hufflepuffs aren't allowed to have a fight club? What a weird book. It figures it's your favorite." Pansy said with a sniff. Hermione narrowed her eyes at her, then stalked off to the nearest teacher's office--Professor Flitwick--to report them.

 

"Good lord. What a day." Professor Flitwick sighed as he sank into his seat in the teacher's lounge.

"Problems, Filius?"

"Hermione Granger. She's been on a bit of a "rules and regulations" kick or something. I don't know. All I know is she showed up hammering on my door and demanded I do something about the Hufflepuffs and their wicked ways. I very nearly started laughing, but she assured me they were all drug addicts that had a fight club going on and I needed to stop it before someone died!" 

"Good heavens!" McGonagall choked "And I thought the potions and amulets scam the Ravenclaws were running was bad enough!" 

"I beg your pardon?" Flitwick demanded.

"She demanded I shut down the "dodgy nightclub" she found." Snape sneered. "I took points and gave her detention."

"Severus!"

"She'd found the seventh year hideaway. If I had actually shut it down there would have been a mutiny, and more than that I don't take orders from students." 

The teachers all turned when Pomona Sprout came stalking in. "Filius."

"Pomona."

"I do trust we'll not be having further misunderstandings."

"It was an honest mistake! How was I to know Hufflepuff house has had a fight club since the Founding!"

"WHAT?" McGonagall and Snape both choked.

"What?" Sprout huffed before taking her seat.

"But it says in Hogwarts a history…"

"Pfah." Sprout snorted. "Helga Hufflepuff was no less a Founder of this school than the other three. Ravenclaw and Slytherin both found the Pit barbaric and poo-poohed our method of keeping order in the House. Gryffindor saw no real problem with it, even had something similar set up for the warriors to work out their frustrations with one another during combat practice, but he also knew Ravenclaw and Slytherin would keep harping on it, so he sided with them. Helga and Godric both realized she wasn't going to end it, just take it underground, and that's just what she did. It's been around since the Founding, it's a tradition of our House and works fine. I will not be the one to end it just because the other houses are filled with a bunch of fluttering daisies!"

"What is even the purpose of having the children fighting each other? They were right! It is barbaric!" 

"Again I say Pfah! We have a school full of hormonal, angsty teenagers who are dating and breaking up and feuding with friends and rivals every day. When two kids have a problem with one another and can't seem to resolve it, they're put in the Pit to battle it out. Work out some of those frustrations, bleed off some of that excess hormonal energy, give them an outlet for all those feelings burbling around inside them. You'll notice my kids are on average far better behaved than any of yours. Well, there's a reason for that." 

"Can we put Granger in the Pit?" Snape asked hopefully. 

"Or Belvedere and Crumsworth? They've been working my last nerve." Flitwick added. 

McGonagall opened her mouth to scold them both, then reconsidered. How much easier would her life had been if she could have thrown the twins, or better yet, the Marauders into the Pit? 

"Yes. Yes we can. We don't tell Albus about this."

"Agreed." Flitwick, Sprout and Snape all said in unison.

"It's for the best, really. It would just upset him." Sprout said with a smile.

 

"This is getting bloody well ridiculous! What are we even doing?" Ginny Weasley growled. She flicked her wand and exploded a nearby pile of snow, which spattered some of the Slytherin girls, who glared at her. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm half-frozen, covered in snow, exhausted. At this point, you know what? I don't even care if Harry Potter has a stupid secret clubhouse! We've searched the whole damned castle AND the grounds. I've seen more stupid caves than I ever wanted to in my life! What are we doing out here again?"

"You heard Professor Lupin! He told us they must be outside if we'd searched the whole castle! Harry was doing some kind of geological survey and wandering the grounds. He and the others were obviously studying the castle to learn how to make a structure that could stand on its own. Their clubhouse is on the grounds somewhere, hidden in a cave! It's the only explanation!"

"I think a more likely explanation is that you're insane!" Pansy huffed.

"You're out here too, sweetie!"

"Tell me something…Did anyone just try asking them about their secret clubhouse?" Olivia wondered. Her nose was red and she was shivering slightly.

"I asked Luna, but she always starts talking about bizarre animals or something." Padma offered, flexing her toes which were starting to feel slightly numb.

"Any time I try to bring up the subject they all keep deflecting until we end up talking about something else." Daphne shrugged.

"Draco does the same thing. He mostly mutters about how much homework he has, or talks about quidditch." Pansy sighed.

"Ron just apologizes and tells me he's really busy, and that I already knew that so why am I complaining." Lavender admitted.

"Millie and Theo were always really vague about where they were and what they were doing. We all thought they were dating for the longest time, but when someone said that they started laughing. They never did tell us what they were really up to." Tracey added.

"Yeah. After we all found out about the OWL thing, we figured that was all it was. They were busy studying and preparing for that…but there's more to it. There has to be. Why all the secrecy if they're just studying?" Ginny grumbled "It's not just the twelve OWL crew either, remember. The twins aren't doing that, neither is Lee or those Ravenclaw friends of theirs or Tom Riddle. Luna, Colin and Dennis certainly aren't. Dennis is a bloody first year!" 

"After today, I don't think any of them are going to be inclined to tell any of us what they're up to, if they ever were." Astroria said with some disgust. "You shut down every single "secret clubhouse" we came across, had a hysterical fit about it to the teachers, ranted about Harry and the rest, at length, to a big crowd of gossipy portraits at every intersection….and we were all right there with you! If I was them, I wouldn't want you within a thousand feet of my secret clubhouse. Did it ever occur to you that this is why they shut you out in the first place? You have no tact, no discretion, and have a bad habit about ranting about their business to the nearest teacher while wriggling your bottom like an eager puppy hoping for a pat on the head!"

"WHAT?! HOW DARE…!"

"Psh. She's right, Granger. At this point I wouldn't want us near any secret clubhouse either. Geez. More people or not, I don't know why I ever thought getting involved with you on a hysterical rampage was a good idea. Come on, girls. It's too bloody cold out here. We're going in." The Slytherin girls hurried after their leader. Padma, Parvati and Lavender shrugged apologetically and left as well, leaving only Hermione and Ginny standing in the clearing.

"Bloody hell. Don't start crying again. Don't listen to that pug-faced Slytherin bitch. Who cares what they say? Slimy snakes, the lot of them." 

She sighed when Hermione just started crying harder, and grabbed her by the arm to start hauling her back to the school. Parkinson was right in that much. It was too bloody cold to be tromping all over creation looking for a man-cave that probably didn't exist. Honestly! She had better things to do with her time than this. Truth to tell, Harry was starting to seem like more trouble than he was worth. Yeah, he got her a kitten, and said she could borrow his broom…but come on! Enough was enough! She wanted a boyfriend that was around once in a while! There were other boys. While she was stomping around looking for one that didn't want to be found, there was a whole school full of boys just waiting. She was wasting away her youth and good looks on this nonsense. She glanced at Hermione, still crying and looking miserable.

"Alright. That's it. Let's get you cleaned up. We've got work to do."

"You have another idea on how to find them?"

"Oh please. I'm done wasting my time on that lot. No. We're going to get you cleaned up, and then we're going to go pick up boys. Boys who aren't Harry or my stupid brother. Smart, sexy boys that will appreciate a good witch." 

"I'm not going to go pick up boys!"

"Yes you are. Some time in a broom closet will probably do you a world of good. You're way too uptight. Besides, say things don't work out for Ron and Lavender. How are you going to make sure you're next in line if you don't have the first clue how to talk to boys? Trust me. I'm doing you a favor." 

"I know how to talk to boys! Don't be ridiculous. My two best friends are boys, in case you've forgotten."

"Actually, that's just my point. From what I've seen, you don't talk to them like boys, you talk to them like you're their nagging mum. Reverse it and think how big of a turn off it would be if the boy you liked started acting like your dad. Eugh! Now, come on!" 

 

"Hogsmeade again. This year has really flown by, hasn't it?" Harry noted.

"Exams are just two weeks away. I do hope you've all been studying." Hermione spoke up.

"Yeah, no worries." Neville nodded.

"I guess it'll be you and Harry today, since Nev and I have dates." Ron said. Lavender squealed and latched on to his arm, beaming. "I can't wait! It will be so much fun!" 

"I'm afraid not. I have a date as well." Hermione said calmly, before taking a careful bite of her breakfast.

Lavender and Parvati both gasped and leaned forward to get all the details. Ron blinked and looked confused. "No you don't!"

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Hermione growled.

"Not cool, mate. If she says she has a date, I believe her. Who are you going with?" Neville asked.

"Anthony Goldstein."

"Ravenclaw bloke? Glasses?" Harry wondered.

"That's him."

"Uh… I think that's really all I know about him. He likes Arithimancy. We don't usually have a lot of classes with Ravenclaw."

"I know." Parvati sighed.

Harry excused himself to head to the Ravenclaw table and talk to Luna.

 

"Hey, Luna. You want anything while I'm gone?"

"I'm good."

"You know anything about Anthony Goldstein?"

"He's nice. Doesn't talk much."

"Probably for the best. Hermione talks a lot. Any idea how this even happened?"

"Ginny. They spent the day looking for us, she had enough, decided she needed dating therapy. She's dating Michael Corner, who's his friend."

"She is, huh? I guess I should go have a talk with Corner. That's him, right?"

Luna nodded and went back to her breakfast.

"Hey, Michael Corner?"

"Yeah. Potter. You need something?"

"Just wanted to give you a warning. Ginny Weasley has a bad temper and likes to hex people who piss her off. She's also got six older brothers, very protective older brothers, FOUR of which are here at the school. You piss her off and she hexes you, her brothers are likely to come after you too. You'd best watch yourself." 

Michael paled and looked decidedly nervous at Harry's words.

"Crap. I didn't even really think about that. Thanks for the heads up."

"No problem." 

 

Back at the Gryffindor table, the kids were watching Harry's progress and speculating about what he needed to talk to Michael Corner about. 

"Oh! He's dating Luna. How cute! Harry's gone off to give him the shovel talk on her behalf." Lavender realized.

Further down the table, Ginny's head snapped around and she turned to see Harry leaning over Michael, who began to look decidedly pale. Ginny began to frown and her eyes narrowed. Michael glanced her way, gulped and gave her a sickly smile. Her eyes tracked him as he rose from his seat. Drawing her wand, she stalked after him.

"Uh…Gin? Where are you headed?" Percy wondered.

"To kill Michael Corner."

"What?"  
"Why?" Fred and George called after her.

Ginny didn't answer, she just walked a bit faster. The twins and Percy scrambled from their seats to go catch her.   
Ron ignored the commotion. His earlier good mood had quite decidedly vanished for some reason, ever since Hermione mentioned her date. Lavender was practically running to keep up with him as he dragged her along behind him, but he hardly noticed, too lost in his own misery. 

Up at the head table the teachers watched all the drama going on with a sinking feeling in their stomachs.

"Is it just me, or do the students seem to be pairing off a lot earlier than usual?"

"It's not just you. This nonsense doesn't usually happen until sixth or seventh year. They all seem to go crazy and pair off all at once."

"Was there something on them to delay the onset of puberty? If there was, it would certainly explain a lot. Tom Riddle's curse remover must have pulled off whatever it was."

"Can we put it back?" McGonagall said hopefully.

"That may not be wise, actually. I had just thought it was me getting older, but in recent years the children seemed to be getting sillier. Even after they'd reached adulthood and had left school. A lot of them I'd run into were married, had children, and still seemed in some ways like children themselves. Maturation is a delicate process. If the process was halted or drawn out, it would explain perhaps why our people seem to not be becoming adults until they're well into their forties anymore. We really need to find out what was done. If whoever did it didn't fully understand what they were doing, they were just trying to keep the kids hormone free and able to concentrate for as long as possible, but didn't consider the effect that would have long term on brain development and such…"

"Bother. Springtime among the sixth and seventh years is bad enough. Can you imagine if the whole bloody school is involved? We'll spend all our time trying to pry everyone from the third years on up out of the broom closets and empty classrooms!" 

"Remus, you've got the controller. Look through it and see if anything comes up. You can consult with Pomfrey if necessary. Maybe we can find a less harmful way to keep everyone's hormones in check while not harming their development." 

Remus sighed. Sometimes being the juniormost professor sucked big time. 

He took a sip of coffee, then suddenly choked and his eyes bugged out.

"What?"

"What is it?"

Remus pointed a shaky finger. The teachers all turned to see Harry Potter sauntering out of the great hall with a Patil twin on each arm. They both seemed to be giggling at something he said.

"He's living the dream. His father would be so proud. And jealous. Definitely jealous. I have to call Sirius right away." 

"No, you have to get to work on the hormone thing immediately!" McGonagall barked. "This is a disaster! The Patils are very traditional! They have a lot of relatives, both here and in India! Every single one of them will show up here if they get even the slightest hint that their daughters have been 'interfered with' in any way! They'll tear the castle down around our ears!" 

"She's right! This is a disaster!"

"Oh, I have the urge to box that boy's ears until he bleeds!"

"We should throw him into the Pit!"

"Severus! As tempting as that is, it cannot be our answer to everything!" 

 

"Wow. That's a lot of candy." Padma said with horror.

"It's not for me." Harry laughed. "I picked up some stuff for the Creevy brothers last time, and this time all the second and first years asked me to pick stuff up for them. See? I've got a list."

"That was nice of you. We could help you with it, if you like." Parvati offered. "It's the least we could do since you offered to be our...what was it again?"  
"Charming and handsome platonic packhorse." Padma said with a smile.

"Would you? I've no problem doing it for them, but I'd also like to be out of the candy store before curfew. Pick out something for yourselves too."

Harry split the list into three parts and they spread out to make things go faster. The folks at the register were nice enough to bag each order separately. While everything was still being rung up, Ron and Lavender appeared. Ron still seemed to be in a bad mood, and Lavender was trailing after him disconsolately. 

"What's Lavender's favorite candy?"

"She likes the raspberry brownie bites."

"Can you grab some? I've put up with Ron in this kind of mood before. It's not fun." 

Parvati nodded and slipped away to grab the requested item. She got it to the register before the last of Harry's rather sizeable order was finished being rung up.  
The two girls slipped away to speak to Lavender, who was staring at the candy display looking rather sad, when Ron spotted Harry and started towards him.

"Hey mate. This Anthony Goldstein bloke. What do we know about him? It all seems kind of dodgy, don't you think? He must be up to something…"

"Ron. RON."

Ron stopped rambling and blinked at Harry in surprise. "I already asked around. Everyone seems to agree he's a nice guy, kind of quiet. As Hermione's friend, you should try to be happy for her…unless he turns out to be a jerk, in which case we will of course hex him into next year. In the meantime, you're here with LAVENDER, who has been looking forward to this for weeks now. She was giddy and in a good mood this morning, and look at her now. She looks like she did on October 11th when she found out her bunny died."

Ron frowned and hunched his shoulders under Harry's disapproving glare. 

Harry moved closer and lowered his voice. "We're thirteen, mate. There's no rush to any of this, yeah? Whether or not Lavender is your forever girl, she's still your friend, and she likes you, and she was looking forward to having a nice day out with you. You owe her to at least not drag her around town, biting her head off every sentence just because Hermione is out with some Ravenclaw bloke. Forget Hermione for today and try not to be a jerk, alright? It's their first date, it may not last. Just concentrate on Lavender and try to have fun today. Got it?"

"You sound like my bloody mum."

"Don't be a jerk." Harry repeated sourly, before shoving Lavender's raspberry brownies at him. "Go give those to her and take her somewhere nice. And for god's sake, apologize." he whispered as Ron stalked away.

Harry turned back to collect his order, and found the shop lady smiling at him. She grabbed an extra chocolate frog and slipped it into his bag with a wink. "Have a nice day, dearie." 

"Um, thank you ma'am."

_"Must be some kind of special"_ he thought to himself _"buy twenty galleons worth of candy, get a free chocolate frog."_

Harry loaded all the firstie and second year's candy into a small expanded bag to give to Hedwig to take back, stuffed his own into one of his pockets and grabbed the girls' stuff and put it into his other pocket, before heading off to collect them.

"Let me just give this to Hedwig and we can be off."

"You brought your owl with you? I didn't see her." Parvati said in surprise.

"Oh, no. She'll be waiting though. She always knows when I need her. She's also rather proprietary. No other owl is allowed to carry mail for me. You'll see."

Once they headed outside, Hedwig called and flew down from her perch over the door.

"Hello, beautiful. Punctual as always. Here you go. Just take it to Colin, he'll know what to do." 

"Preeeck!"

He launched Hedwig into the sky and held out his elbows, which the girls took with a smile.

"Alright, ladies, where to next?"

"Bookstore?" Padma said hopefully.

"Let's save that for last." Parvati objected. "She'll be in there all day. Let's go to Gladrags. Our grandmother is coming in from India for the holidays. We should probably try to find her a present first." she explained.

Padma sighed and nodded. "We should. She's picky. It makes her hard to shop for."

"Well, what kind of stuff does she like?"

"She likes cooking."

"Sewing."

"Dancing."

"Minding everyone's business."

"Parvati!"

"It's true."

"Alright…maybe then instead of clothes you find her a cookbook, or a nice set of pots, or something? I don't know."

"It might not be a bad idea. She never likes the scarves or gloves or anything that we pick out"

"Or the jewelry"

"Forget clothing. We never made that mistake again"

"Perfume either."

"Picky. Right. Alright, let's head in there. They might have something. Maybe I can find something for my aunts while we're there." 

 

"Won-Won…is something wrong? You act like you don't even want to be here." 

"Oh, uh, sorry, Lav-Lav. I just have a lot on my mind is all."

"Well, like what? Maybe I can help."

"It's just well…this Anthony Goldstein bloke, I mean, it's weird, right? Hermione's acting all barmy and then she's almost sane again and then she's off with some Ravenclaw bloke I never heard of, and really, what's up with that, huh? What's his angle? Has he been stalking her or… Lav?"

"That's what's got your knickers in a twist? You've been brooding about Anthony Goldstein and… Is that what this is? All of it? You were just using me to make Hermione jealous? I thought we had something special. I spent an hour on my hair this morning and you didn't even notice and… YOU JERK! YOU ABSOLUTE JERK! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! BASTARD! TAKE THAT! BAT BOGEY! BAT BOGEY! BAT BOGEY! JERK, CREEP, HAIRY-HEARTED MONSTER! HOW DARE YOU! SEE IF I EVER GIVE YOU THE TIME OF DAY AGAIN! I REALLY… L-L-Liked youuuuuu! WHAAAAA!"

All conversation in Madame Puddifoots came to a halt as Lavender jumped out of her seat and began cursing Ron for all she was worth. Ron was too busy trying to dodge all the bats pouring out of his nose and doing their best to claw out his eyes to see her crying, or the filthy looks the other girls in the place were giving him. He also didn't see the other guys wincing and wondering just what the hell he'd done to deserve it.   
Madame Puddifoot herself came bustling out, swept up Lavender in a powder-scented embrace and hustled her off to a little room she had set aside for just such occurrences, offering her a lace-trimmed hanky and a cup of hot tea on the house.

Neville and Hannah, who were seated nearby, gaped at the scene and hurried over to help Ron, who was flopping around on the floor and groaning weakly. Neville knew the countercurse--they'd all thought it a good idea to learn it, given Ginny was so hex-happy.   
Once the bats were gone, Ron laid there a bit longer, groaning. His nostrils were swollen, his face and hands covered in scratches…and a small dribble of bogeys that hadn't yet transformed into bats were dribbling down his face. Hannah grimaced and handed him a handkerchief, Neville sighed and hauled him up to his feet.

"Pay your bill and let's get out of here."

Ron fished out a couple of galleons and trudged after them, looking quite pitiful and woebegone.

 

The trio found a table at the Three Broomsticks and settled down. Madame Rosmerta, the proprietress bustled over a moment later.

"What'll it be, kids? And what happened to you there, big guy?"

"His girlfriend hexed him."

Rosmerta tutted, drew her wand and healed the worst of the scratches on his face.

"Three Butterbeers please."

"Alright, just give me a mo'." 

"So, Ron what…Ron?" Hannah snapped her fingers in front of Ron's face and he jumped, then turned red when he realized they'd caught him ogling Madame Rosmerta.

"Back with us? What the hell happened? What did you do to Lavender?"

"Why are you so sure I did something? Maybe she's just crazy!"

"Ron."

"I don't know what got into her all of a sudden! I was just talking and the next thing I know she's cursing me! Girls are barmy!"

"What were you talking about?"

"Nothing important."

"Lavender doesn't seem to agree."

"Lavender, Lavender! What about me? I'm the one who got cursed!"

"Yeah. We're just trying to find out why. What were you talking about?"

"I just wondered what the deal was with that Anthony Goldstein. I mean, that just came out of nowhere, right? How does Hermione even know him?" 

"So…you ruined your date with Lavender because you were obsessing about Hermione. Lavender realized you were just using her to make Hermione jealous and didn't take it well." Hannah said with some disapproval.

"What? No!"

"Geez, Ron. If you just wanted to make Hermione jealous, you should have just told Lavender that. She probably would have helped you. You shouldn't have led her on like that." Neville added with equal disapproval.

"I'm telling you, it's not like that! I wasn't leading anyone on! Last time she said she wanted hot chocolate, and I thought, yeah, it is kinda nippy. That'd be good. So I said let's go, and she was hanging on my arm and laughing at all my jokes…even the bad ones! I thought, yeah, this is pretty cool. I like this. We had fun, so I figured yeah, let's do that again. I was just wondering what the deal was with this Ravenclaw bloke that came out of nowhere and Lavender just went barmy!" He frowned then and crossed his arms. "She even took those brownie things Harry bought her."

"Why wouldn't she if they were hers?"

"Ain't it like, customary, to give back presents when you break up with someone?"

"You just said Harry bought it, not you."

"Yeah, and? I'm hungry. I didn't get to finish my stupid cake on account of Lavender. Barmy, I tell you. Still had to pay for it too. I need to get another job. I'm almost out of money. I hope the whole…" his gaze darted to Hannah for a moment and he changed what he was going to say "landfill thing is still going on come summer. Maybe Sirius'll let me get a job doing that. I mean… I don't really want to spend my whole bloody summer sorting muggle's garbage, but I hear it pays well."

"We're not even old enough to have wand rights, so I don't think he's technically allowed. You could help us with our Thames project though."  
Neville offered.

"Thames project? What's this?" Hannah asked curiously.

"Oh, well…muggles pollute. It's not entirely their fault, they can't do the things we can, and so their manufacturing and what have you has a lot of side effects. Chemicals in the ground, water and air, piles of garbage they can't get rid of. Over the summer Tom and Harry spent a lot of time wandering around muggle London and some other places. Tom's very concerned with the environment…Harry too, but it's mostly Tom's thing. They took samples of the water from the Thames, and did some scans of it…"

"How? No magic in the summers. I mean, we get an exemption because of the farm, but that shouldn't work for them."

"Loki got them a summer tutoring exemption, but that's not the important part. They took samples and did scans and the water in the Thames is really dirty, and there's a whole lot of trash just piling up on the riverbed…they said the beaches were pretty disgusting too. The landfill thing has turned out to be even more profitable than any of them dared imagine, and they want to do more of it, and why not? The world will be cleaner and safer, and they can make money at the same time. It's win-win. Unfortunately, the Ministry found out how profitable it's been and tried to seize his operations, except they had to back off because the goblins were involved and they were afraid of setting off a rebellion. They had to let him keep his operations and the three landfills he bought, but he's not allowed to get anymore, because they've been buying them all up. They figure any profits made will go to the Ministry, and any villages built will be under Ministry control. They'll probably try to seize any villages he tries to set up once the landfills are cleared and cleaned up, but that's a worry for the future, and not what I was going to talk about. He can't get any more landfills, but we can clean up the beaches and the river and do much the same thing. There's tons of trash to be had in both places, and lots more piles up every spring and summer. The cans muggles sell their drinks in are made of aluminum, and that's worth money to the muggles. They did a rough estimate and think we could make roughly 20,000 galleons just by recycling those cans."

"Twenty…!!!! Sweet bloody Merlin on a stick!"

"I know, right. It's pretty shocking how much the muggles' trash is worth and we never knew. Now, to make that kind of money we'll have to gather a LOT of cans, like a whole, whole lot of cans. We'll also have to clean them up and strip off any paint and make it back into a block of aluminum that we can have the goblins sell to the muggles for us, but it would really, really be worth it for that kind of money. Tom's been developing these things he wants to deploy in the river that will gather up the trash down there and dump it in one of the landfills for processing and recycling. Sirius said he'd just pay him a bulk sum for each delivery or something. He's also going to be trying to sort out any contaminants in the water and sort them out to separate containers somehow to be examined later to see if there's anything the muggles will want or that just has to be gotten rid of because it's dangerous. While he's doing that, Harry was going to concentrate on gathering up cans and stuff. He's got some kind of scheme to set up any trash receptacles as automatic collectors that will transport the trash somewhere we can sort through it, but he said a lot of stuff will still end up on the beaches and around it anyway, and so it would probably still be a good idea to wander different parts of the beaches an hour each day or a couple hours once a week to gather up what's left, process what's gathered and what not. I was thinking it would be a good idea to get involved this summer to help out, maybe make a few galleons. You could help us."

"Harry never said a thing about any of that!"

"Well, it was actually Tom I was talking to about it. Summer's still a few months away, Harry probably didn't think there was any urgency, you know?"

"Still grubbing with trash, but yeah, I'm in."

"Can I get in on this too?" Hannah asked.

"You want to sort trash this summer?"

"No. I want to make some money. I mean, yeah, I get a small allowance, but that's it. It's not really enough for more than the occasional butterbeer when we come to Hogsmeade." 

"The more hands we've got the more we'll be able to get done, the more we'll be able to sell, the more money we'll make. Even if we don't make as much as predicted, it will still be more than enough to let everyone get a nice share."

"Can I mention it to some of my friends who'd like to make some extra money?"

"Let me talk to Tom first. It would probably be fine, but it's his thing so…"

"Oh, hey, there's Tom now….what the hell?"

The people sitting nearest to them, who had evidently be shamelessly eavesdropping, jumped out of their seats and rushed Tom, demanding summer jobs.  
Tom looked rather shocked at suddenly being rushed like that, looked around, spotted the three of them and narrowed his eyes at them in exasperation. Neville and Hannah mouthed 'sorry', Ron glared at the jerks trying to hone in on his awesome summer job that would make him rich. 

Dean and Seamus came in right after, while Tom was still being hounded by adults who wanted in on garbage collecting. They spotted the three of them and wandered over to join them.

"So…Harry bloody Potter is dating the Patil twins." Seamus announced sourly. 

"What?"

"Yeah, we just saw them. They were shopping for housewares. Like, pots and stuff." Dean nodded. 

"Both of them? Do they know this?"

"They were all together."

"So he's dating both of them at the same time? And they're fine with this?"

"Seem to be. Man, that guy is really starting to bug me. He's making the rest of us look bad."

"Two girls at once. Sounds scary, actually. One girlfriend at a time is enough trouble for any bloke."

"Yeah, we heard about that. Tough luck, man. If you were trying to make Hermione jealous you should have just told her that. She's a romantic, she would have been all over that." Seamus scolded.

"I wasn't…! It's not like that!"

"Sure it is."

"Barmy. You're all barmy as Lavender, I swear."

"You should have just asked her to go to Hogsmeade with you."

"I did, remember?"

"Not Lavender, Hermione. Too late now. I saw her and that Goldstein bloke. They were in the bookstore chatting about homework. She seems to be really into him."

Ron's face twisted up and he glared at the table top. Not even the return of Rosmerta or his butterbeer seemed to cheer him. Dean and Seamus put in their orders and turned back to the rest of them.

"Did you all hear about Michael Corner?" Dean asked.

"No. Ravenclaw, right? What happened?" Neville wondered.

"Ha! Ron's sister happened, that's what. She hexed the unholy hell out of him. She said he was cheating on her with Luna Lovegood."

"That's crazy. He wasn't dating Luna. We would have known about it if he was." Neville objected.

"That bastard! I'll murder him!"

"Your brothers already just about did. They saw Ginny hexing him and so they hexed him too. They dumped him in the hospital wing and took off before they could be banned from coming to Hogsmeade. That's what he said, anyway."

"Oh. Well, good. The bastard deserved it."

"No he didn't. He wasn't dating Luna or cheating on Ginny!" Neville sighed.

"He deserved it for trying to bloody well molest my little sister. Perverted creep. I'm going to hex him when I see him. What's he look like?"

"We're not telling you." Hannah huffed.

"I'll just plot him then."

"You're not hexing him! I don't believe you! You were just complaining about Lavender hexing you, saying you didn't deserve it--though you totally did--and now you want to go hex some guy you don't know who didn't even do anything wrong! Are you even listening to me?"

"I don't think he is, look." Neville murmured. Hermione and Anthony Goldstein had just come in. There were a few other Ravenclaws with them from their year. They were all chatting easily with one another. They all noted that Hermione seemed happier and more relaxed than they'd seen her all year, and the time outside, even though it was winter, had put some much needed color back into her cheeks. The group wandered past their table, but Hermione didn't seem to see them sitting there. Dean, Seamus, Neville and Hannah glanced at Ron warily, but he was still glaring at the table top and a figurative storm cloud seemed to be forming over his head. 

"Drink your butterbeer and stay seated." Hannah ordered. "If you go over there and start a fight, I swear to Merlin I'll hex you myself!" 

"Already took care of it." Neville sighed.

"What'd you do to me?"

"Calming charm."

"I didn't hear you cast anything." Seamus said curiously.

"I've learned to cast it silently. Harry and I both use this spell so often we both can."

"Why have you been casting so many calming charms?"

"Potions class. We cast it on each other before we go in…you know, since all you bastards threw us on his non-existent mercy last year."

"Are you still sore about that?"

"YES." 

"Look, there's Harry now."

"Damn. He is dating the Patil twins! That bastard. He never said a word." Ron said calmly.

"What's going on over there?" Dean wondered as they watched Tom snag Harry by the back of his collar and dump him in front of several adults who had been clamoring around him since they'd arrived. They all started clamoring at Harry while he made his escape.

"They were bugging Tom about jobs cleaning muggle garbage from the river and beaches this summer."

"Yeah, they overheard us talking and asking if we could get jobs."

"Oh that, yeah. We'll be doing that this summer." Seamus said glumly.

"What? You knew about it? Why did you know about it and I didn't?" Ron demanded.

"It's because of Muggle Studies. The program we're doing is something called the International Baccalaureate. It's the usual course of muggle studies one would expect in a normal school, but slightly advanced and with a focus on international literature and language. One of the things we have to do to complete the course is a public service thing. None of us were sure what to do, but Harry told us about this thing with the trash and recycling. It's just the sort of thing the program looks for, you know? So he mentioned it to Professor Burbage, and everyone in muggle studies who's doing the continuing muggle education is going to help out this summer to fulfill one of the requirements. It's all kosher on the muggle side--they think it's some kind of pilot program government initiative to clean and beautify the waterways and beaches. We're going to have uniforms and everything. They already cleared it with the muggle school that oversees the testing and all and got it cleared to fulfill the requirement for us. That's why we know." Dean explained.

"Can we still get jobs for the summer?" 

"Sure. I don't see why not. I'm just glad we're wizards. I don't think you could pay me enough to sit in the hold of a boat sorting through muggle river garbage in the middle of summer otherwise. Bleagh!" Seamus shuddered.

Harry came over and joined them, looking slightly ruffled.  
"Thanks a lot guys. Because of you and your big mouths all those jerks were convinced they'd be making twenty thousand galleons a week collecting cans. I had to explain to them that no, you could get that much after collecting enough to fill a quidditch field, and that amount would be spread out over everyone. Geez. Remind me to hex Tom later too."

"I told you older brothers sucked." Ron said placidly.

"Where are your dates?" Seamus wondered. 

"My platonic companions for the day--they're not allowed to date and I'm not looking to right now--heard Lavender was off crying in Madame Puddifoots and went to console her. I told you to stop being a jerk, Ron, what the hell!"

"Not my fault, she's just barmy." Ron explained calmly before taking a deep swig of his butterbeer.

The rest of them wadded up their napkins and threw them at him.

 

After all the excitement of Hogsmeade, life at Hogwarts settled back down again. Most of the third years, after hearing about some of the mishaps of their fellows, decided that maybe dating was best left till they were older. It probably helped that the staff started spiking the pumpkin juice with calming draught, though the students didn't know that. 

The students got buried under piles of homework and revision for the upcoming exams, which seemed to be approaching with alarming swiftness. 

At the last divination class before exams, Hermione, who was showing signs of stress once again as she began fretting over her revision, exploded at Trelawney.

"This is all just…just…WOOLY NONSENSE! I'm wasting time here breathing in incense fumes when I could be doing something useful!"   
She jumped to her feet, smacked the crystal ball they were working with off the table and flounced off in a snit after grabbing her bag.

"Heh. And to think, she told us we should quit because we couldn't handle twelve OWLs. Looks like she's the one who can't cut it!" Ron called after her as she stomped down the ladder. 

Hermione had continued to spend a lot of time with Anthony and his Ravenclaw friends after Hogsmeade. Ron wasn't taking it well.

"One of you will leave us at midwinter!" Parvati gasped. Beside her Lavender gasped as well, and both of them looked at Trelawney with obvious awe. She only preened a little.

"She'll be back." Harry laughed. "She'll refuse to be the only one of us who doesn't manage twelve OWLs."

"Harry! Midwinter! You're going to have a close encounter with death!" Parvati realized. She, Padma and Lavender all looked at him in horror, as though expecting him to keel over at any moment.

"Like I said. I'll get his autograph." Harry said dismissively, trying to play it cool.

"I have a frame waiting." Professor Trelawney announced. "I'll be hanging it up over there." she pointed to an empty spot on the wall. Harry frowned thoughtfully, and wondered, not for the first time, just what sort of circumstances her prediction was going to entail. 

 

When class finally let out, Ron started in again on what was becoming a monotonous rant.

"Ugh, I am not ready for this. We're all going to die…or at the very least our hands are going to fall off! We have to take twelve exams! Why did we ever think this was a good idea?"

"I know it's a pain now, but it will be worth it in the long run. Anyway, we've got this. We've been quizzing each other, we've been studying, and we've been doing lots of magic, so the practicals should be a breeze. Don't worry about it."

"Yeah, Weasley. Do shut up. If you find it so onerous, drop some classes. The rest of us are sick of hearing about it." Draco growled.

"We should probably do some last minute studying for the first exams." Millicent sighed.

"I'm sick of studying." Theo muttered.

"So we'll make a game of it. Like a gameshow. Whoever gets the most right answers gets an extra scone." Harry offered.

"I'm in. How long till dinner? I'm kind of hungry." Ron said brightly.

The rest of the group groaned.

 

Exam week started the following Monday. The kids tried to keep their spirits up by doing a gameshow study session for the following day's exams. Ron, properly motivated with the promise of extra food, won most nights, usually because he refused to give anyone else a chance to answer.

Even with these precautions, most of them were wandering around like zombies by midweek, and were running on fumes by Friday. The end of term was greeted by all of them with subdued enthusiasm; they were too tired for much else.

 

"I really need this holiday. I know we were talking about maybe meeting to do some work or plot out new projects we can all branch out into, but…"

"I think we all feel like that. Still, after a few days of rest we might be recharged enough to consider it."

"We still have holiday homework to content with."

There were groans around the table as they were reminded.

"It's Friday evening. The Express doesn't leave until Monday morning. That gives us the weekend to churn out our assignments before leaving." Neville pointed out.

The kids all groaned again.

"This being responsible and forward thinking stuff is for the birds." Draco muttered with a pout.

"Yeah, tell me about it." Ron agreed.

"Say, what was the deal with you and Granger after the last exam?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because I want to keep track of what's going on so I have some rough idea of how much longer we need to beware of you randomly exploding and biting everyone's heads off." 

"Actually, yeah, we'd all like to know that." Theo agreed.

"I haven't…"

"Yes, Ron, you have. Ever since Hogsmeade. We're all sick of it." Harry chimed in before he could make excuses. "So what happened?"

"I just told her that stupid Ravenclaw was a prat and was probably using her to up his grades since he came in eighth to her first place first year. He came in seventh last year, but that's because she was petrified and ended up in the bottom ten because of it. She told me I had a hairy heart!"

"That's…weird. Sounds painful. And itchy. Mostly itchy. What a bizarre thing to say."  
Harry noted the purebloods at the table were all looking at him askance.

"Let me guess, this is some wizard thing you all think is super obvious that I've got no clue about, right?"

"It's from the tales of Beedle the Bard. It's a common phrase, actually. I'm surprised you never heard it."

"Yeah. Lavender told me the same thing. Can you imagine?"

"What does it even mean?"

"It means you're unfeeling, heartless, basically."

"Why is it hairy?"

"The wizard in the story cut it out of his body and stored it in a casket so he'd never be ruled by love. It grew shriveled and hairy while it was away from him and killed the girl he was going to marry."

"Oo-kay. Sounds like quite a book. I had a bunch of them, they were for real little kids--people sent them to me but I didn't get them until last year and gave them to charity. I'm surprised they'd have stories like that in a book for little kids."

"Like the Grimm fairy tales are any better. Lots of maiming, beheading and dead children in those." Millicent pointed out.

"I'm not surprised with a name like that, though "gory fairy tales" would have worked as well." 

"That was the name of the brothers that wrote those stories."

"Huh. Well, with a name like that, it's not surprising they wrote stuff like that." 

"So? Homework marathon?" 

"Tomorrow. Too tired." 

Though none of them really wanted to, they sloughed through the holiday homework over the weekend, finishing the last of it Sunday night, then spent the remainder of the evening packing up their stuff to head home for the break.


	4. Revelations and Research

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Tom head home to Grimmauld Place for the Christmas holiday. Secrets are revealed, presents are opened, and the family visits Godric's Hallow, where they get some clues about the strangeness that abounds.

"We clear to talk?" Harry asked.

"I've put up the wards already." Tom agreed.

"Alrighty then, I hearby call this end-of-year meeting to order. Does anyone have any business to present?"

"Are we still going ahead with recruitment come January?" Millicent wondered.

"As far as I know that's still a go. Lee? Did all of you finish the slide show?"

"All done."

"Good. One of you from each group needs to make a short speech to cover what all you get up to. Five, ten minutes tops. Did everyone submit their list of candidates?"

"Yes."  
"Yeah."  
"Just before we left."

"Alright, let's start with that then."

Everyone in the group opened the candidates list on their PDAs so they could go over them together.

"Hannah Abbot…Susan Bones. I see no problems with either of them. Anyone?"

"No."  
"No problem here."

"Lavender Brown. Ron? Is this going to be a problem?"

"No. She's stopped glaring at me finally, seems content to ignore my existence for the most part. Anyway, it's not like we'll be working in the same area; she got tagged for the Biosphere project, animal division."

Team by team they went through the lists. The bulk were recruited from amongst the third and fifth years, as that's where all of them currently in the company were from, and they had a nice balance of houses and talents.

"Okay then. Luna, Colin, Dennis you'll all be moving to the newly established art and design team, correct?"

"Alright, so far so good. Hopefully they'll all want to be involved. If they don't, it should be alright. Remus will be standing by to obliviate them, so we can make good on our threats without worrying about doing any brain damage."

"Always a plus." Tom said dryly.

 

"I think this should be it. I didn't even know there was a dining car!" Su Li said brightly.

"Neither did I until we were on the train in September. I thought the cart was it as far as food." Hermione agreed.

"Hermione? Are you going to go in?" Terry Boot asked when she halted at the door.

"Those sneaking…lying prats!"

"Who? Let me see?"  
"What's going on?"  
"Are we going to the dining car or what?"  
"Who's in there?"  
"What's the hold up?"

"You all told me I was imagining things! _There's no secret clubhouse, Hermione, if there was you'd have found it by now!"_

Anthony, Su, Mandy, Michael and Terry crowded around the window in the door, hoping to see what had gotten Hermione so upset, only to see a group of students already in the dining car, sitting at a large booth together.

"So? Maybe they're just getting lunch. Are we going in or not?" Mandy Brocklehurst shrugged.

"They're not having lunch, they're having a meeting! Look! They're taking notes! And they have PDAs! Oooh! I could just box their ears! Well, I've had enough! I’m going to get some answers!"

"Geeze, would you calm down? Some of us were talking about it, and there might actually be a reason for the secrecy." Michael sighed.

"There is no excuse acceptable!"

"This could be. We've been hearing rumors that the Weasley twins are hoping to open a prank shop when they get out of school. According to Penny, our prefect, Sirius Black offered to front them the money to start it if they could prove themselves first. They might actually be developing products for their shop, or trying to."

"How does that explain all the lies?"

"Did they actually lie to you?" Anthony wondered. "From what you told me it sounded like they just didn't answer any questions. They might have signed a contract that keeps them from talking about it."

"That's a good point. The thing is, if they are actually trying to develop products, the secrecy might be necessary. They'll probably be trying to patent anything they invent that seems like it might sell. They might have lots of ideas, but so can other people. All that really matters is who gets the paperwork in first. Haven't you heard about the Knight Bus case that happened earlier this year?"

"Knight Bus case? No. What does it have to do with anything?"

"Sirius Black and Lily Potter patented charms to make a muggle engine run on magic, and to make a motorcycle apparate and fly back in the seventies. The folks running the Knight Bus recreated a lot of their work, but once Black was out of prison he was able to prove he had the idea first and got the patents long before they'd tried. The case was settled over the summer. They have to pay him ten percent of their profits as royalties after giving him a lump sum at settlement."

"There's also the whole business with the recycling business Black started. The Ministry, once they realized it could be profitable decided to do it too, but on a larger scale. They tried to seize the landfills he'd bought and his profits as part of it, I'd heard. They ended up backing off, but they tried. With stuff like that going on all the time, if they've been working on stuff for the twins' shop that Black is planning to bankroll, it's no wonder they're concerned with secrecy!" Su agreed.

"They could have told ME!"

"Well…" Terry began.

"WHAT?"

"Could they really?" Michael snorted. "If you haven't noticed, you're a bit of tattletale."

"I am not!"

"You kind of are. I mean geez, the whole school saw you stomping all over the castle with your entourage, having fits all over the place when you were looking for them. You had a whole bunch of stuff shut down, got a whole bunch of people in trouble while you were at it. They probably saw all that and decided they didn't want you anywhere near it." Su scolded her.

"Yeah, discretion is not your middle name. I hope you weren't hoping to be an Unspeakable, because I hate to say it, but you're probably already on their unhireable list. I'm just saying." Terry backpedaled when Hermione leveled him with a ferocious, offended stare.

"You are kind of intense." Anthony agreed, managing to not flinch when she turned her glare on him.

Hermione reached for the door and threw it open, stomping into the car, only to stop in confusion. The group in the booth were eating lunch, and there were no PDAs to be seen. Her hands clenched in impotent fury. She glared at all of them and stomped to the lunch counter. She wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of begging for answers.

The Ravenclaws noted, even if she didn't, as she had her back to them and was radiating affront from every pore, that the group in the booth exchanged weary glances and many of them shook their heads at Ron, who looked back at them pleadingly--in between casting puppy dog looks at Hermione's back and glaring at Anthony.

They exchanged a weary look of their own and headed to the lunch counter as well.

More kids were starting to arrive, so the group in the booth finished up and left so they could have their seats. Hermione continued to pointedly ignore them and then stomped off after finishing her lunch.

"Geez." Mandy scoffed.

"I know, tell me about it." Terry agreed.

"Do you think it would help if I told Weasley we were kind of bullied into that date by his sister, and we both decided we were too young for any kind of serious relationship?" Anthony wondered.

"Probably." Su nodded.

"In fact, tell him to call her over the break or something and work out their angst so the rest of us will stop getting caught up in it, would you?" Mandy added.

"Yeah. It's like living in a soap opera." Su agreed.

They searched for Ron after leaving, and shoved Anthony at the door with the order to smooth things over and give him a push.  
Anthony grimaced at all of them as they left, then sighed and knocked briefly on the door before opening it.

"Hey, Weasley, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Harry and Neville didn't bother looking up from what they were doing, they just whipped out their wands and both shot Ron with a spell. Anthony twitched in shock, but relaxed when all that happened was that Ron's face smoothed out of the scowl his face had twisted up into. He even smiled a bit.

"Yeah, alright." he agreed, pushing himself up out of his seat. "You bastards." he added to his friends as he left the car.

Anthony just shook his head; Gryffindors were all nuts.

 

Harry waved goodbye to Ron and Neville after they stepped off the train. Tom watched them go by and then turned to Harry for an explanation. Ron had seemed almost giddy, and there was a bounce in his step that hadn't been there earlier.

"Anthony Goldstein came to talk to him. He and Hermione were bullied onto a date by Ginny. They both think they're too young, decided to just be friends. She's been hanging out with all of them because she joined their study group. They all like hanging out in the library for scheduled study sessions. Ron and I, not so much."

"Ah."

"There you are, pumpkin! Have a good term?"

"Yes, daddy."

"Good, good."

Tom glanced over to see Luna being greeted by her father. The pendant hanging on the man's chest caught his eye.

"Excuse me? Why are you wearing that?"

"This? I'm a Seeker."

"You play quidditch?"

"No, no, goodness! I haven't been on a broom in years. I'm a seeker for truth."

"You do know that symbol is known as the mark of Grindlewald?"

"Oh, no, it's much older than that. This is the mark of the deathly hallows."

"The deathly hallows? I’m not familiar with the term. The other name I know it by is the Peverell mark."

"Really now? It's interesting you should say that. There has long been speculation that the three brothers in the story were in fact the three Peverell brothers."

"Story? What story would that be?"

"They grew up with muggles, daddy." Luna interjected.

"Oh. Not familiar with Beedle the Bard then? You should make a point to read it. It's usually the first stories children hear while they're growing up. The deathly hallows are the three items gifted to the brothers by death when they manage to evade him. In later versions of the story the items become more fantastical. In the original runic version they're a wand of elder wood" he traced his finger down the line in the center "the resurrection stone" he traced the circle that enclosed the line "and death's own invisibility cloak" he traced the triangle that enclosed both.

"Why does death need an invisibility cloak?" Harry wondered.

"He gets tired, I would imagine, of chasing you with his arms out." Luna replied.

"Ah."

"There have been many seekers of the hallows over the centuries. The wand, at least, is known to be real. You can trace its path through the pages of history. It's always at the center of major conflicts. It's become known as both 'the wand of wonder' and 'the deathstick' because of how many have lost their lives to others seeking to claim it. If the wand is real, chances are the other items are as well. Some think that if you unite the three hallows you become master of death and become immortal… I'm not sure I believe that part. It runs rather counter to the moral of the story, but there's plenty who think it anyway. I was only ever interested in one of the hallows, myself."

"Probably just as well. I'm certain immortality isn't all it's cracked up to be." Harry wrinkled his nose.

"Very wise for one so young. Well, it was nice talking to you both, but I'm afraid we do have to get going. You boys should stop by sometime. I'd like to get to know my princess' friends."

"Maybe we'll do that."  
"Goodbye. See you next year."

Loki said his own goodbyes to the two and gathered up his charges, popping them off to Grimmauld Place.

"Do you think Sirius has a copy of that book?" Harry wondered.

"I would imagine so if it's as pervasive as Xenophilius seemed to indicate. You can both go look for it another time. I'd like to hear about your term. I'm afraid I've not been around much lately. My brother was getting irate that I've not been around much as of late to go questing with he and his idiot friends. On the plus side, because I didn't go on their last quest they might appreciate me a bit more. Their camp got attacked during the night because I wasn't there to ward it. They got cursed by the treasure hoard they found because I wasn't there to check it over, and they got into an unnecessary battle right after because none of them ever thinks to research the area beforehand." he said with a sigh. "Wishful thinking. I really should stop torturing myself." he added quietly. He shook off his pensive mood and smiled at both of them. "But you don't want to hear about my idiot brother and his equally idiotic friends."

"I don't mind, if you want to talk about it." Harry offered. Beside him Tom nodded.

Loki smiled at them both affectionately. "Maybe another time. I'd much rather hear about both of you."

He led them both towards the parlor.

"Where's Sirius anyway?"

"He's been trying to build a room to test your equipment in when he's not overseeing your landfill project. I'm sure he'll be along presently."

Since being taken in by Loki, Harry had often found himself wondering why he'd bothered. It wasn't like he got anything from the arrangement, and he'd done so much for him since taking custody of him, and then he'd gone and done the same for Tom. It was only now, as the three of them sat together in the warmth and coziness of Sirius' parlor by the fire while outside the wind raged and snow began to fall, and saw him laugh and relax while listening to their small triumphs and failures it occurred to him that perhaps he needed them as much as they needed him.

 

Harry stretched as he woke and smiled to himself. As much as he loved Gryffindor tower, he had to admit it was nice to be in his own room again--no snoring roommates for one thing. He glanced at the window and saw snow piled up against the panes. It looked like it was going to be a white Christmas. Movement outside the window caught his eye and he smirked when he spotted the two ravens.

"Kreacher?"

He was rewarded a moment later with the appearance of the Black family house elf.

"Young master is needing something?"

"Can you bring me some bread or something? Anything ravens would like to eat."

At Kreacher's look he pointed to the two birds watching through the window. The house elf's eyes widened in surprise when he looked at them, which was interesting. They just looked like two normal birds to him. When Kreacher reappeared he had a bowl with some croutons and some dried corn, which he handed over before vanishing once more. Harry headed towards the small balcony, and shivered slightly in the icy air that filled his room when he opened the doors. There was about six inches of snow piled up on the balcony, which he vanished with a flick of his wand.

"Hello Hugin. Hello Munin. Happy holidays." The birds cawed and fluffed their feathers, though whether they were saying hello back or were startled he couldn't tell.

Once the ground was clear he dumped out the bread and corn Kreacher had brought to him and then headed back inside to get dressed for the day. He could hear the Ravens 'caw caw' as he headed off. They seemed to like their breakfast.

So far as he could tell, Loki still hadn't noticed them. It made him want to laugh-- all those times Loki mentioned he wasn't supposed to be down here, or that it was a secret. It wasn't nearly as much a secret as he seemed to think. Odin had been watching the two of them from the very beginning.

When he came back out and was about to leave, he spotted an old, unopened letter on his dresser. He vaguely remembered getting it about a year ago. It had arrived alongside Narcissa's answer about places he could donate toys to charity. He'd glanced at it and set it aside, never opening it. He went and picked it up now, and frowned when he realized there were pictures inside the envelope, or so it felt like. Curious now he opened it and dumped out the contained letter, which was several pages thick and a small pile of what was indeed pictures. He checked the last page, and sure enough, it was signed by his cousin Dudley. He hadn't opened it at the time when he'd seen his writing because he'd assumed Dudley had written him a nasty letter in response to the one he'd written to aunt Petunia asking about her side of the family. It seemed he'd been very wrong, and damn it, now he felt guilty.  
He flipped over the pictures and saw a youngish couple with two little girls. The man had red hair like the one little girl, the woman blonde like the other little girl.

"My grandparents? Mum's mum and dad?" He looked closer. The blonde woman, who might be his maternal grandmother had the same green eyes he and his mother had. He picked up the second picture and found a black and white photo of a man and woman with a little blonde girl that looked like it was taken in the 30's or 40's, and another of a couple with a little boy. He checked the backs of these and found "Patrick, Katherine and Henry Evans 1938", on the other "Caelum, Heather and Rose Hitchens 1942"  
He checked the first photo he'd looked at and found "Henry, Rose, Petunia, Lily"

"My grandparents and great-grandparents."

He finally turned to the letter and read through it, his feeling of guilt for having left it so long growing with every line.

 

"Hey, there you are, kiddo. You almost missed breakfast." Sirius greeted him when he came in.

"What took you so long? I heard you up moving around when I came down." Tom wondered.

"I had to write a letter to my cousin Dudley."

"Your muggle cousin? Why?"

"I wrote to my aunt Petunia about a little over a year ago and asked if she could give me the names of some of the relatives on her and my mum's side of the family. She threw the letter out."

"What? Wretched woman…" Remus gasped.

"But my cousin Dudley found it and told his dad he needed to do a genealogy project for school. He sent me pictures of our grandparents and great-grandparents. He also had some stuff from his dad's side of the family but didn't send me any of that because I'm not related to uncle Vernon or his sister Marge by blood. He told me whatever bits Vernon or Petunia knew about any of them. He sent me the letter last Christmas and I only just opened it."

"Why didn't you open it?" Sirius wondered.

"Because when I saw his handwriting I figured Aunt Petunia was having fits and he wrote me a nasty letter for upsetting her. Instead she just threw it out and wasn't going to bother to answer and he decided to do so in her stead. And now I feel guilty because I wanted to stay mad at him for beating me up all the time when we were little kids, and he went and apologized!"

"He did?" Loki asked curiously.

"Yeah. He said his school was making him go to counseling and made him go on a diet and he's seeing things differently these days. So, I wrote back and apologized for not opening his letter and thanked him for the pictures and the information."

"Well…that's good, right?" Sirius said.

"I guess." Harry grumbled as he began filling his plate.

"So… learn anything interesting?"

"Nothing earthshaking. My mum's parents were Henry and Rose Evans. Their parents were Patrick and Katherine Evans and Caelum and Heather Hitchens."

Sirius choked on his coffee.

"What were those last two again?"

"Caelum and Heather Hitchens."

"Caelum Hitchens? Your great-grandpa was Caelum Hitchens?"

"Yeah? Why?"

"My great…several greats aunt, younger sister of my great whatever grandfather Phinneas, Isla Black, was disowned for marrying a muggle named Bob Hitchens. It may be a common name, so by itself that might not mean anything…but Caelum is a star name. It's the 'sculptor's chisel' or something."

"So I was right then. Muggleborns are descendants of squib lines, they don't just sprout magic from nowhere."

"So it would seem. HA! That'll stick in mum's craw. She's convinced marrying muggles weakens the bloodline!"

"When I get back to school I'm going to check and see if any Hitchens were at Hogwarts before mum was. We don't know if Isla had any magical descendants other than mum. I'm going to have to check and see if I can track any Evans on the squib registry. If Isla didn't, or if they went squib after a generation or two, it's possible mum got magic only because she inherited magical genes from both sides of the family. She got the red hair from the Evans, and the green eyes from the Hitchens, she might have gotten genes for magic from both sides too. Petunia and Dudley are both blonde and have blue eyes, which they got from both sides as well, but the opposite of mum. If those traits weren't linked to magic on either side of the family that could explain why they don't have any."

"Maybe we should get a genome project started. The muggles have been doing that, there has to be classes on it at one of the universities." Tom mused.

"At the rate we're going we're never going to get to space. We're going to be too busy trying to assimilate the entire body of knowledge muggles and wizards have accumulated to date." Harry grumbled.

"We've been shoring up secrecy and once the magical villages are all back up and running that should buy us even more time. I say we should reap the benefits of accumulated knowledge while we've got the chance."

"I'm fine with that…so long as we don't lose sight of the project that started it all. That's all I'm worried about."

"Say…since we were talking about families and all. Do you want to head off to Godric's Hollow before you head back to school? I think it's about time we went to visit your parent's graves." Sirius spoke up.

"Is that where they're buried?"

"Yeah. In the churchyard there."

"Have you been there yet?"

"No." Sirius replied, his voice short. He modulated his voice and tone when he saw how everyone was looking at him.

"I didn't… That was the moment I lived over and over again, all the years in Azkaban. I knew something was wrong when I couldn't find Peter, and then I got to the house and it was… Hagrid had gotten there first. He had them laid out on the ground amidst the rubble and had you in his pocket for safekeeping. I lost all three of you in one night. When I wasn't reliving that I was reliving Peter accusing me and blowing up the street. Peter's dead now..."

"He is?"

"Yeah. He didn't even last six months. Cowardly bastard. He's dead, so I got some relief on that front… I guess I just wasn't ready to face the place where they died again. My mind healers have been on my case about getting closure on it. I've been putting it off until now. It's not really been fair to you, has it?"

"I'm not worried about that if you think it'll be a problem for you."

"Don't worry about me, pup. I've come a long way since I got out. I think it'll be alright. The mind healers have been right about most of what they suggested, I'm willing to trust they're right about this too. I know they're dead. I've known that fact for years now. Part of me is still living in the moment where it had just happened. I need to let it go and let that heal, put it in the past where it belongs."

"Sure. I'd like to see the village where I might have grown up had things been different."

"You're coming too, right Moony?"

"I don't want to intrude."

"Don't be stupid. How could you be intruding?"

"I hope you don't mind if Thomas and I come along as well?"

"No, the more the merrier…well, maybe not in this case. You're all welcome to come along if you want."

"Perhaps after the festivities though?" Loki suggested. "I imagine Harry has last minute shopping to do, and I'm afraid Thomas and I have some things to take care of today."

"Oh, alright. Yeah, that should be fine."

Harry glanced at Tom, but he seemed confused at Loki's announcement.  
Loki and Tom disappeared from the kitchen after they ate. Tom still looked confused. Harry did his best to put it out of his mind; he'd just ask Tom about it later.  
Harry didn't really need to do any shopping; he'd taken care of that at Hogsmeade. He busied himself wrapping presents for a bit and then took some of he and Ron's latest mining designs to Remus and Sirius to see if they could offer any advice on a few things that were still not quite working like they'd envisioned.

 

Tom looked around at the loft he suddenly found himself in and found his gaze riveted on the odd collection of items on the table right in front of him. They seemed to call to him.

"What…?" he asked as he moved forward to pick up the locket. "This was my mother's. It was in the police report when my uncle and grandfather were arrested."

"So it was." Loki agreed. He said nothing else, just moved to take a seat on the other side of the table.

Tom glanced at him questioningly and moved to the next item. It was an old ring, crudely made, with an ugly black stone in the center. He tilted it slightly and could see the same symbol Mr. Lovegood had been wearing. It appeared to be floating just inside the stone. "So was this" Tom frowned and looked at the next. It was a woman's tiara, made of silver, with sapphires and diamonds decorating it. Across the front was an engraving.

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure… this is Ravenclaw's diadem. The Grey Lady said she hid it in a tree in Albania."

Loki said nothing, he just continued watching him.  
Tom was beginning to feel a creeping unease, but he wasn't sure why. The next item was a golden cup with two handles. On the front was a badger.

"Hufflepuff's cup?"

As he handled each of them he became aware of a faint ache deep within him that grew more pronounced once he set each item aside.

"What are all these? What's going on?"

"I think you know, dear boy. You're a clever fellow. Too clever for your own good, it seems. So very magical as well. You sometimes do things without intending to, and other times do very complicated things very simply, to your own detriment."

"I don't understand."

"Once upon a time, a lonely, angry boy who trusted no one, wished deep in his heart of hearts for an equal, someone he could talk to and trust implicitly. He didn't believe such a person existed, so he created a magical journal that he planned to put an imprint of himself into so that he could confide in it. After all, if you cannot trust yourself, who can you trust? However, the boy was a bit overzealous in his spellwork, and he put half his soul into the item, rather than just an imprint."

Tom began to feel cold and his hands clenched at his sides.

"He wanted someone trustworthy, clever, full of ideas and dreams. In short, though he didn't quite realize what he'd done, he put the very best of himself into the item, and left himself with all the rest: a desire for power, a hunger for vengeance, a bit of disdain for those who weren't as magical, powerful or as clever as he was. He also left himself with a deep wound in his soul--and left untreated, even magical wounds can fester. Do you begin to see the shape of things now?"

"There was never any East European refugee, was there?"

"Got it in one. But then, as I said, you really are quite a clever fellow."

"What are these things?"

"These? That would be the rest of your soul. Most of it, anyway."

"Most of it? Where's the rest?"

"Well, the free part that was left is back in Albania possessing rats. The rest, the last little bit, I think you can guess."

Tom stared at him blankly, then blanched.

"Harry. It's in Harry."

"Ah, you are good at this."

"Does he know?"

"At the moment, no."

"I always wondered…. I couldn't understand how anyone could get the drop on me to such a degree… no one in my year or any of those above could match me. I had thought maybe Dumbledore, he is a transfiguration master…but he was so utterly flummoxed by me being there that I decided it couldn't have been. No one could beat me…but me. It all makes sense now."

"You put half your soul in the journal, and what was left had nothing left to stop him from going further. As best I've been able to recreate what happened, the free part of you discovered the idea of a horcrux…the thing you made accidentally. He became enamored with the idea of immortality…and much like the Egyptian wizards of old, he wanted to push the boundaries of magic. He decided to split his soul further…and then further still. And each time he got a little more wounded, a little more insane, a little more lost in his own delusions of grandeur. He gathered followers and set them loose on the world he loved to destroy it. He would insist he was saving it, but well, let's face it, the fellow wasn't firing on all cylinders by that point."

Tom pulled a second chair and sunk down into it.

"So what happens now? You brought me here for a reason."

"Well, now you need to make a choice, dear boy."

"A choice? Don't you mean fix yourself and be a good boy from now on?" Tom asked numbly.

"No, I said a choice and I meant a choice. I'm the god of mischief, it is true, but I'm also chaos. Chaos is not only the breakdown of law and order, it is also change. Which means, oddly enough, that no matter your choice you will still be in my purview. Works out nicely, don't you think?"

 

Harry sat up and looked around confused. When had he gone to bed? He was still dressed… He didn't remember laying down though. Last thing he remembered he was sitting at the desk in his room trying out the adjustments Remus and Sirius had suggested. Had he fallen asleep and one of the elves moved him?  
He climbed out of bed and stopped, taking stock of himself. He felt strange… Not bad, not injured or sick or anything…but strange. Lighter? Yeah, that was as good a description as anything.  
He stopped a moment, listening. He thought he'd heard something… What time was it, anyway?  
A flick of his wand gave him the answer. 10 pm. He'd been asleep for a while then. He'd come up to his room shortly after lunch. He, Remus and Sirius had eaten alone. Loki and Tom had never come back.  
He left his room, feeling restless. He contemplated checking to see if Tom was back yet, but he'd probably just wake him up.

He padded quietly towards the stairs and then halted when he realized he could hear voices down below.

_"…so you're saying Kreacher knew all this time what had happened to Regulus and he never said a word?"_

_"He was under orders from Regulus not to say anything. I believe that burden was responsible in large part for his decline. I had the item in question cleared of enchantments, and I've alerted the authorities to the location of the lake. A team of Unspeakables is supposed to be heading out to deal with it."_

_"What was the thing though? What could have been so important that he died trying to retrieve it?"_

_"It's called a horcrux. A wizard puts a bit of their soul in an object and thus anchors themselves to the mortal plane. It is a method of immortality…a foolish, flawed method, but a method nonetheless."_

_"I can't believe it. All this time…"_

_"At least you can now comfort yourself that your brother died a hero."_

_"Trying to be. He should have had Kreacher take the thing to Dumbledore. Things might have been different. He could have destroyed the thing, then Voldemort would have been mortal again. James and Lily would still be alive."_

_"He thought Kreacher would be able to destroy the item and died thinking it was over. I wouldn't be too hard on him. It was a brave thing he did."_

_"Where is the item now?"_

_"I gave it to Thomas. I do hope that was alright. The locket once belonged to his mother."_

_"Yeah. Yeah that's fine."_

_"Is it safe?"_

_"Quite safe. The enchantments have been undone."_

  


Harry backed away from the stairs and went back to his room, shutting the door quietly.Once there, he began pacing.

  
_"If you do a hominem revelio on a room that contains five people and one object with a piece of soul in it…do you get a reading telling you there are six people present? And if you do, and one among you is a transfiguration master, do you jump to the conclusion that the object is a transfigured person? Inquiring minds want to know."_

  
"And if you do…what does that mean for the rest of us?" Harry whispered.

  


He rubbed his hands over his face and through his hair fretfully, then froze and hesitantly ran his fingers over the lightning-bolt scar on his forehead. He went to the nearest bathroom and peered in the mirror at it. It was different. It actually looked like the faint scar of a wound a decade-plus old, rather than the nearly-fresh, red and puffy it usually was. Harry remembered then, something Loki had said to him when they had first met.

  
_" I had meant to examine that scar of yours. There is a lot of magic tied up in it. I don't like the feel of it at all. I would like to dig the darkness out of it if at all possible. I don't think it's good for you, leaving it there. I won't be doing so today, however. I would like to take my time examining the structure of it before I make any decisions about what, if anything, to do about it."_

Now, his scar was different, he'd woken up from a long nap he couldn't remember taking, feeling odd…and Loki and Tom were apparently off undoing a soul-thingy…what had he called it again? Horcrux.  
Except…he'd been talking about a locket that Kreacher had given him or something, not his scar. Which meant there'd been more than one, which brought him right back to his earlier worries about Tom.

It hadn't made any sense at the time-- the heir of Slytherin was running amok, and BAM, one heir of Slytherin, made to order. Except, he'd been a dumb teenager, one who had seemed as confused about what was going on as the rest of them. Then Lockhart had confessed, and it seemed to clear it all up…but for a little bit that still didn't quite make sense. And then there were all those curses…  
Had Tom put them on everyone and then removed them to deflect scrutiny from himself?  
He himself had been suspicious right at first, but then as the weeks went by and Tom had continued to seem perfectly normal, he dropped them.  
Dumbledore hadn't though, and it was him, ultimately that he needed to fool. Not that it seemed to have worked. Dumbledore seemed to dislike him as much as he ever had.

He didn't know what to think. Voldemort wanted him dead. Tom had actively protected him. Voldemort talked in the third person and was kind of an asshole. Tom seemed like an average, if very smart, teenager.  
But if Tom was Voldemort, it was all a lie, wasn't it?  
Restless and upset, he started upwards. The Blacks were into astronomy. They had a tower with a telescope at the top of the house. If you were careful, you could wander around on the roof up there too. He couldn't fly, not here in muggle central. Being up high on the roof was the next best thing.

The wind whipped around him as soon as he stepped outside. It was cold as all hell and snow flurries were beginning to fly, but it was just what he needed to clear his head and give himself some clarity. Or it would have been, had someone not beat him up here.  
Tom was perched at the edge of the roof, legs stuck through the low railing that encircled it, leaning against one of the spikes--though he'd transfigured it to be flat first. He tensed when Harry's shoe scraped against the roof and turned to peer over his shoulder, looking startled. Harry froze in place, and the smile that was starting to bloom on Tom's face withered away.

"Harry?"

"You looked surprised to see me. Were you expecting me to sleep longer after you and Loki knocked me out so you could take your soul out of my forehead?"

Tom suddenly looked uncertain, but only for a moment. His features smoothed over becoming blank and blandly pleasant.

"Harry? I don't…"

_"Don't you dare lie to me!"_ Harry's hiss crossed the distance like a viper strike. _"I overheard Loki telling Remus and Sirius about Regulus' locket and what it was. I woke up with no memory of going to bed, feeling strange, and my scar is different. Then there's you. A diary…with a soul. Am I right? Hominem revelio registers a thing like that as a person? There never was any refugee. No one stole your identity. It was you all along."_

__  
Tom began to slowly and carefully climb to his feet, hands out.

  
_"Was this all just some big joke to you? Couldn't get me to join you first year so you figured you come at me a different way?"_

Harry's voice broke and his face twisted up in bitter anguish. Tom froze in place looking stricken.

_"No! Harry no…I swear to you. I didn't know. I thought I was a diary, and then I was suddenly human and they told me… I didn't know!"_  
He took a step forward, but Harry backed away an equal distance. Tom's face twisted up in frustration.  
_"I'm telling the truth! Loki said I did it by accident when I was trying to put a personality imprint in the diary. He said suddenly losing half my soul left the rest of me crazy! I never planned to be a ruddy dark lord! I was going to be the DADA teacher and stay at Hogwarts! It was the only home I'd ever known…until now. He gave me choice. I could go be a crazy dark lord and destroy whatever I hadn't already…or I could heal myself and go on as I am. He gave me a choice…and I chose you!"_

Tom's chest heaved as though he'd just run a marathon, and his hand lifted for a moment as though he was going to reach for Harry, but then it dropped lifelessly to his side.

  
_"I chose you. It doesn't matter though, does it? You know… You know who I am and what I've done. I destroyed your life, even if I didn't know it."_

Harry's eyes blazed with fury.  
_"If you tell me you have no choice now but to run off to be a stupid dark lord again just because I yelled at you, I swear to god I'm going to kick your ass from here to bloody Asgard."_

Tom had had a very upsetting day, so he could perhaps be excused that his reply was to scoff and say _"I'd like to see you try."_

He'd forgotten for a moment that Harry was a Gryffindor. He really should have expected to be tackled.

 

Down below Loki, who had been monitoring both boys, stifled a sigh and excused himself before popping up to the roof. He had to hold back a cry of alarm when he saw them for fear of startling them and making things worse. Tom was hanging half off the edge of the roof and Harry was perched precariously above him trying to haul him back up.

"Maybe you should just let me fall." Tom said tragically.

"If you don't stop being a bloody diva, maybe I will." Harry growled back.

His anger seemed to give him an extra dose of strength, as his next heave pulled Tom up enough he was able to grab on and pull himself the rest of the way.  
They both looked a bit worse for wear as they collapsed side by side. Faces red and chapped from the wind, noses red from the cold, hair and clothing damp from the snow they'd been rolling around in.

"Why didn't you let go?" Tom asked quietly.

"I guess I chose you too. Don't be stupid."

"I'm not stupid. You're stupid."

"Says the guy who accidently lost half his soul."

"Wha…You jerk!"

Tom shoved him, and it might have developed into another battle royale had Loki not grabbed them each by the back of the collar and hauled them up to a safer perch.

"That's quite enough, children. Do me a favor, hmm? Next time you feel like pummeling each other, do find a less dangerous place to do so."

"It's his fault! He tackled me!"

"You were being a diva. You left me no choice!"

The two boys began shoving and kicking each other, until Loki gave them each a shake, like they were a couple of unruly puppies.

"I suddenly have a strange sympathy for my father." Loki sighed. "How awful."

 

Loki popped them all down to the kitchen, where Brunhilde tutted at them and gave them both some hot chocolate with a splash of brandy in it. Once they'd finished they were shooed off to bed.

Harry entered his room, only to realize Tom was lurking near the door. As soon as he noticed him noticing he continued on to his own room.

Harry got out of his wet clothes, took a hot shower and got into his pajamas, while considering whether or not he should do or say anything. He still wasn't sure how he felt about the whole Tom used to be the crazy-dark-lord thing, but he realized he couldn't just leave things as they were. If it was weird for him it had to be so much worse for Tom. Finally he got the equipment he'd been working on earlier and went to Tom's room to knock.

Tom eyed him warily as he pushed his way in once he'd opened the door. "Yes?"

He'd obviously done much as Harry had. His hair was wet and starting to curl up around his head.

"I wanted to show you what I was working on earlier, since you were gone all day."

"I was going to go to bed."

"No you weren't. You were going to brood. Now come look at it." Harry scoffed.

He climbed on to Tom's bed and began unloading the mining array. Tom followed him and collapsed across the bed rather dramatically.

"I should have just gone and been a dark lord."

"But you chose me, so now you're stuck."

"I can't imagine what I was thinking."

"Oh, you love it, don't lie. Now come look."

Tom acted very put upon as he sat up, but most of the earlier tension was gone from his face and shoulders, so Harry knew they'd eventually be alright.  
Tom wasn't Voldemort, even if he really was--which was still confusing and strange--and it wasn't fair to punish him for what the rest of him had gotten up to while he was broken and crazy. He didn't know if his parents would agree, but they weren't here, he was, so it was up to him to decide.

They both had decided they'd rather have a brother than a fated nemesis, so that's what they'd do.

 

**"Tom? You awake?"**

Tom stirred and looked around blearily, just as the door opened. Sirius grinned wryly.

"I had wondered where Harry had gotten to. You two need to take a break from all the space stuff once in a while."

Harry sat up and looked around confused.

"Did I fall asleep?" he asked, yawning.

"Apparently. Come on, you two, it's Christmas. Of course, if you don't want your presents…"

"I want them, I'm up!" Harry protested.

He stumbled off towards his room to get his slippers and robe, his arms full of his mining gear.

"You too, curly top."

Tom glowered at him and ran a hand self-consciously over his hair. There was a reason he used so much gel on his hair normally.

 

When they got downstairs they saw Loki eyeballing some odd packages beneath the tree.

"What are those?"

"They seem to be for the two of you. Open them and see."

Harry dug them out of the pile, passing one velvet bag and one long cloth wrapped bundle to Tom and keeping the others for himself. Tom opened the bag first, Harry the bundle.

"Armor?"  
"Cool! Sword!"

"Mother." Loki sighed ruefully.

Sirius crossed his arms and looked pouty.

"What's with you?" Remus asked him.

"I suddenly feel some sympathy for my mother, and that's just wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"She always used to get mad, 'cause Reg and I always liked our grandparents' presents the best. I suddenly know just how she felt." he sighed.

He pouted a bit longer and then looked sort of pained.

"What now?"

"I'm gonna have to start planning now to impress their kids, damn it. We're gonna have to bring Loki in, or we'll end up competing with him too. Damn…their kids are gonna be so spoiled… Oh well. They'll have to deal with them, not us."

 

After breakfast they all suited up to go visit Godric's Hollow. Sirius and Remus apparated away from the front step, leaving Loki and the boys to follow behind. When they reappeared they were on the edge of a quiet village, hidden in the trees just off the edge of the main road that led into the town. There were few people out and about, though they could hear voices in the distance. The streets were narrow, winding between large cottages, so the view was rather obstructed most ways one looked. Sirius led them down main street until they arrived at the town square. There was a war memorial statue posted there, right next to the church and church yard. Sirius' steps faltered as did Remus' when they came abreast of the statue. It wasn't until the rest of them had gotten closer that they understood why. When they got close, the three soldiers changed to a man and woman holding a baby.

"There's a statue of my parents and me here?" Harry whispered, his voice sounding strangled. "And no one thought to warn me?"

"I didn't know about it either." Sirius murmured, his voice a croak. "It's a good likeness."

Remus shook himself and grabbed his friend's arm. "Come on. They should be in the churchyard."

Harry started to follow, then hesitated and grabbed Tom's arm to tow him along as well. As weird as it was for him, it had to be just as weird for Tom; not to mention disheartening to know he'd grown up to be such an asshole that people built statues to celebrate his death. Tom came along without protest, his face shuttered.

Remus and Sirius spread out to search for the Potters' graves. Tom and Harry split up to do so as well. Tom glanced at the nearest grave, a long stone slab. He glanced around and flicked his wand to brush off the snow and his eyes widened.

"You find something?"

"Look."

"It's that symbol again. Ignotus Peverell. _And the last enemy that shall be conquered is death."_ Harry read out loud. "What does that even mean?"

"It's from the Christian bible. It's talking about the resurrection of Jesus and the end times. When the end times come, Jesus is supposed to resurrect all the faithful and give them new, immortal bodies. All the non-Christians will be thrown in a fiery pit to burn for eternity while the elect go off and live immortally with Jesus for the rest of time. Death will be the last enemy conquered so long as you have faith."

Harry just looked at him in interest. Tom's cheeks colored slightly. "I used to be an altar boy."

"I've never been in a church. My aunt and uncle said freaks weren't allowed and if I walked through the door it would probably catch on fire or collapse or something. I was just given extra chores while they went."

"There was a chapel at the orphanage. A priest used to come by on Sundays to say mass. The youngest boys had to serve altar duty. I was made to do so longer. They thought I was a devil child and hoped an extra dose of piety would cure me."

Harry snorted and glanced around. "I think they found them. Come on."

"Maybe I should stay here. It doesn't seem appropriate."

"You can say you're sorry. Silently. Remus and Sirius will ask questions otherwise." Harry scoffed, dragging him along.

 

Harry's steps slowed as he got closer to his parents' graves. He'd been flippant so far, but mostly because he was feeling sort of weird. On the one hand, this was the closest he'd been to the people who had once been his parents since that night. On the other hand, they were long gone; all that remained was bones under the earth. He didn't remember them, not really. He loved them of course--the idea of them, the wish for them to still be a family… but they were strangers to him nonetheless.

They had loved him enough to die for him, but he couldn't remember them--not what their voices sounded like, not how they smelled, their little quirks and habits. Everything he learned about them was just stories in the end. The lump in his throat and beginning of tears in his eyes were for the lack of any memories of them more than it was for their actual death. Remus and Sirius were devastated, standing there, but they had known them and loved them and shared their lives for years. Harry had never been a part of that, and it hurt to know that even standing above their graves he was no closer to them than he'd ever been.

Tom knelt down and tapped his wand to the ground. A small blanket of poinsettias sprouted from the ground over their graves, looking bizarrely cheerful against the white snow. He still seemed uncomfortable and ill at ease, but for Harry's sake he seemed to be trying to be respectful and unobtrusive. He even attempted to comfort him, hesitantly patting him on the back as they all stood there.

Sirius pulled himself together and wiped at his eyes.

"I wonder who picked the quote? James always said he wanted his grave to say _"Here lies the sexiest man in existence. Despair, for now you will never meet him."_

Harry snorted, and soon after Remus and Sirius were both laughing, their faces filled with bittersweet nostalgia.

"What did mum want hers to say?"

"Well, when she heard your dad's quote she said maybe she should put down _"I did. HA HA, suckers!"_ She regretted it though. Your dad was strutting around for weeks afterwards and teasing her that she agreed he was the sexiest man in existence."

"I think she finally hexed him to make it stop." Remus laughed.

This time even Tom snickered, though he looked like he felt ill while he was doing so.

"Did you want to see the house?" Remus asked quietly once they'd all settled down again.

"Yeah, I think I would."

"Harry? Tom?"

The whole group turned around to see who had called to them. It was Hannah Abbot.

"Hannah? Hi. You live around here?"

"Yeah. What are you doing…oh. Of course. Sorry to intrude."

"It's no trouble. We were actually just getting ready to leave after we see my parents' house."

"Oh. Your house... I don't suppose you'd consider renting it out? It's just…my cousin is getting married and he's been having…"

"Um…wouldn't he rather live in a house that's intact?"

"What are you… Oh! You're talking about the house that blew up! No, I meant their actual house."

"I was told that was their actual house."

"Well, no. It belongs to old lady Bagshot. She used to rent it out. No, there's lots of wizards in the village. They would have noticed if their actual house disappeared and it would have been pretty obvious where they were hiding. They packed up and hid out in her house. Their actual house is on the other side of the village."

"I had no idea... The ministry should be building new houses soon. He should just get one of those."

"First choice goes to families with kids old enough for accidental magic but not old enough for Hogwarts."

"Oh."

"Miss Abbot, was it? Have your cousin contact me. I'll see what I can do." Loki interjected, handing her a card.  
Hannah glanced at it and smiled whimsically at what it said: Loki Odinson God of Mischief.

"Really? Thanks! I should be getting home now. Happy Christmas!"

"Same to you. Bye."

"Happy Christmas."

Harry waited till Hannah was gone and turned to Loki for an explanation.

"What? You're going to be in school for the next several years, child. You have several little cottages that have been sitting empty for years now, your parents' house and several that were left to you by old people who like yourself probably didn't realize it was a rental house that blew up. It could be months or years before even the first village is ready. If there are people looking for homes in the meantime there's no sense leaving all those little houses sitting empty collecting dust when they could be collecting rent instead. I'll arrange something with Gringott's and put the word out. No problem."

"Oh. Okay. Hey, funnel the rents into the corporation. We keep branching out. It's starting to get expensive."

"Alright. That should be easy enough to arrange."

 

They headed out of the graveyard and back onto main street. They followed the road till it reached the end of town. It was pretty obvious which house it was as most of the roof was missing and the walls on the upper storey had started to crumble.

"Holy shit." Harry said very quietly.

Standing there, seeing the extent of the destruction, it became a little more obvious to him why so many wizards seemed oddly convinced that he must have strange powers. He'd been just a baby and right in the middle of that. It was a miracle he was still alive. Tom seemed similarly struck by the destruction. Harry moved to the gate with the thought of going inside, only to jump when a placard popped up in front of him.

"In this place on October 31st 1981 the dark lord You-Know-Who met his end. The house has been left untouched as a memorial to the fallen and a memory of the fearful destruction unleashed that night." Harry read.

Tom peered over his shoulder and felt ill again. Dozens of names and well wishes to Harry were scrawled over the placard, along with insulting remarks leveled at himself.

He had been so hated that not only did no one miss him when he was gone, they actively celebrated his demise all across the country. His stomach churned at the thought and he began to feel lightheaded. Warmth at his back and shoulder steadied him. Loki lightly squeezed his shoulder while appearing to read the placard. He steadied a bit further when a warm hand gripped his wrist out of sight of Remus and Sirius, who were both gazing at the destroyed home, lost in memory. He took several deep breaths until the world steadied, and glanced over at Harry, who gave him a sad smile in return before turning back to the house.

Tom was suddenly disgusted with himself. They were standing here at the site where Harry's life was destroyed and his family torn apart…and he was comforting him. He suddenly wanted nothing more than to flee, but the gentle grip on his wrist and his shoulder kept him rooted to the spot.

"We don't get many visitors this time of year. Folks usually come by at Halloween."

The group turned and saw a very old woman dressed all in black in the doorway next door.

"Bathilda Bagshot?" Sirius asked.

"Yes. Do I know you?" She wondered, peering at them myopically.

"Sirius Black, ma'am. Harry and I came to visit his parents' graves."

"Harry? Harry Potter? Where… It's you, is it? Come closer, boy. My eyes aren't what they used to be. Well! Look how you've grown. Time does fly. The last time I saw you, you were just a little baby."

"I'm afraid I don't remember you, ma'am."

"No reason you should, child. How old are you now?"

"Thirteen, ma'am."

"Thirteen. Yes, time does fly." she murmured absently. "It's a bit nippy out. Would any of you care for a spot of tea?"

"We don't wish to impose, madame."

"Nonsense. It's no imposition. I don't get many visitors these days. Come in, come in."

They followed her into her cramped and crowded cottage. Space was at a premium; every inch of the rooms seemed to be filled with books, knickknacks and photographs. It was rather cramped with all of them stuffed around her table, but they managed to fit though very tightly. Tom ran his hands along the table top while waiting for her to start serving out the tea, but the roughness of the table under his fingertips drew his eye. Puzzled he stared at the table, which was carved over every inch in reach, again and again with the same symbol.

"My nephew. Well, great nephew by marriage. Gellert. He was obsessed with that symbol. The room he stayed in while he lived with me is all carved up too."

"Gellert? As in…"

"Gellert Grindlewald. Better known as the dark lord Grindlewald. Aye. That's him there." she pointed to a picture off to the side. "Him and Albus. Dumbledore. I introduced them. They were thick as thieves in those days. Together all day, owling back and forth all night."

"That's ridiculous." Remus said flatly.

"Hmph. So says everyone I tell the story to. Take a look. The Dumbledores used to live in that house. The one that blew up. Their mother moved them here from Mould-in-the-Wold after her husband went to prison for killing three muggle boys. Her, the two boys. There was a girl too. I only ever saw her once. She was with her mother in the yard. They were strange folks. Secretive. I'd wondered if she was a squib and they were keeping her hidden away. Their mum died suddenly right when Albus graduated. He was all set to go on his grand tour, instead he had to come to this little village to take care of his siblings. Gellert moved in with me after his parents died. He became obsessed with the deathly hallows. He wanted to see his parents again. Because of all the secrecy at Durmstrang, they were dead for months before he knew they were dead."

Loki grabbed the picture she had pointed to and brought it to the table. They all crowded closer to take a look. In it were two teenage boys. Though much younger and red-haired and beardless, it was obviously Albus Dumbledore. Beside him was a blond pretty-boy with a bright happy smile on his face. He reminded them all of a younger, blonder, more delicate Lockhart.

"That's the dark lord Grindlewald?" Sirius said dubiously. "That kid doesn't look like he could hurt a fly. What would make someone like that decide to go conquer Europe?"

"Albus. The whole thing was his idea. I've still got his letters to Gellert to prove it. He felt that wizards were superior to muggles and should rule over them. He also felt that he and Gellert, being so intelligent and accomplished, should rule over other wizards. _For the greater good._ He even came up with the motto."

"What happened then?"

"Well, to this day I'm not really sure. All I know is one day Gellert came running in like a bat out of hell, gathered up his things and took off. I found out later that the little girl, Albus and Aberforth's sister, was dead. I went to her funeral. Aberforth broke Albus' nose at the service and said it was all his fault. Albus didn't even try to defend himself. Aberforth went back to school, Albus sold me the house and bought the Hogshead for Aberforth so he'd have a future, and he went off on his grand tour like he'd originally planned. Aberforth and I had both assumed he'd gone to hunt down Gellert, but then he turns up decades later with an army conquering Europe."

They stayed for a little longer, making small talk. Bathilda told the few stories she knew of Harry's childhood and the events of that night. The village outside was bright and blinding after being in the dim recesses of Bathilda's home.

"Let's head back to the house." Sirius suggested. "Lunch is probably ready by now. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm hungry."

The boys both opened their mouths to object--they wanted to go question Aberforth Dumbledore about what had happened with Grindlewald, but the stunned, disbelieving looks on their faces made them reconsider. They traded a look and promised each other to go do so on their own at the first opportunity.

Once they were back at the house, Remus and Sirius headed off to drop off their cloaks and go get something to eat. Loki gave each of them a fond pat on the shoulder and followed them. The boys headed up towards their rooms so they could talk.

"Beedle the Bard and the Deathly Hallows keep being brought to our attention. That has to mean something. There aren't many pure coincidences where magic is involved." Tom mused.

"I agree. Beedle was brought to my attention once before all this as well though. Lavender told Ron he had a 'hairy heart' apparently, and later Hermione repeated it. She probably heard the story from Lavender and reused the phrase just to rub it in. It's from another Beedle the Bard story."

"What's that one about?"

"A wizard that made a horcrux."

Tom pursed his lips in thought. "We really need to read that book."

"I agree. I think I'm beginning to understand how I'm going to be able to get death's autograph before we head back to school."

They dropped off their cloaks, collected Nagini and made a beeline for the library. They had research to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be the last update for the next week to week and a half. I'm going on a cruise. Internet access aboard ship is both crappy and expensive as hell, and I'm not bringing my computer in any case.  
> Comments are always appreciated.


	5. An Encounter with Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom and Harry go to Azkaban.

Sirius glanced to the end of the table where the two boys were bent together over a book and trying to eat at the same time, and glanced at the other two questioningly.

"Any idea what they're up to now?"

"Looks like it's written in runes." Loki offered.

"Does your family have a runic version of Beedle the Bard?"

"Yeah, we do."

"They didn't grow up with those stories like the other wizarding children did." Loki reminded them. "They've suddenly been introduced to a whole facet of wizarding society that they're ignorant of. If I know anything about our boys, and I do, the first thing they'll want to do is remove that ignorance."

"Can Tom's snake read?" Sirius wondered next. "It's just, she seems to be reading too."

"I don't think she can, but she's likely curious about whatever is holding their attention so."

"It wouldn't surprise me if Hedwig could read." Remus chuckled, glancing at the owl perched on Harry's shoulder and staring at the book as well.

The three men watched curiously as the boys finished reading, then sat back lost in thought. Just when they were certain there was nothing else about to happen, the boys looked at each other and had an odd conversation.

"I still want to talk to Aberforth"

"Yes. Best to get all the facts first."

"We should alert the aurors. It's going to be a problem when they disappear."

"Give us two hours first."

"Yeah. We don't need them interfering. Do you know where it is?"

"I would think that was obvious. The Isle of Drear."

"Where the quintapeds are? Of course… It's a joke."

"Best ring up the calvary. We're going to need Dennis."

Harry snickered and nodded. "Our little secret weapon. I can't wait to see the looks on everyone's faces." 

"Um, boys? What's going on?"

"We found the thousand year old immortal that's been mucking about with Hogwarts and elsewhere."

Whatever they'd been expecting, that certainly wasn't it.

"Wait…what?"

"How did you manage that?"

"It was all right here if you look." Tom patted the book. "You're all welcome to come along. But let us do the talking."

They tried to question him further but he refused to say anything else until it was time.

They both vanished and then returned a while later wearing their cloaks again. They noted Tom was also wearing a ring which he fiddled with while Harry gave Kreacher a letter with the instruction to give it to Hedwig in two hours. Hedwig he instructed to take the letter directly to Madame Bones and convince her it wasn't a trick. Hedwig puffed up her chest and barked assurance that she would not fail.

"The others?"

"Are going to meet us at the Hogshead."

The adults hurriedly summoned their own cloaks and scrambled after the boys as they disappeared into the fireplace one after the other. 

 

Sirius righted himself and looked around. They were in the Hogshead. The place was empty except for Aberforth himself, who was behind the bar, Tom and Harry who were standing in the middle of the room, waiting, Loki, who was perched at the bar looking amused and sipping a glass of wine. The fireplace flared behind him and he moved aside, only for two little boys to tumble out one after another.

"Hiya Harry! Hiya Tom! We're not too late, are we?" Colin asked excitedly.

"No, just in time. We're just waiting for…ah, there she is." The fireplace flared again, and this time Luna Lovegood stepped out, and behind her, her father, who looked around in interest at everyone gathered there.

"Hello. Hope you don't all mind me tagging along. I wanted to see my princess in action."  
"Not at all, Mr. Lovegood. In fact…I daresay you'll find the story we'll be covering quite interesting." Tom replied, his voice wry. Luna studied him a moment and then glanced at his hand and her eyes widened in unease.

Harry caught her eye and shook his head at her subtly. They locked eyes a moment and she nodded, though she still looked unhappy. 

"If you'll all take a seat. It's story time."

Luna and her father took seats and she readied her parchment and quill to take notes. Colin snapped a few pictures of the bar and everyone in it.

"Aberforth Dumbledore. If you would…could you tell us about the day your sister died?" Tom asked without further ado.

Aberforth's eyes widened in shock and his hand clenched on the rag he'd been using to idly clean the bar.

"What? Why do you… How do you even know about that?"

"We don't wish to reopen old wounds, but it's important, as you'll understand as the tale unfolds." Harry offered.

Aberforth let out a shaky breath and his eyes grew misty with remembrance. 

"Our mother died suddenly the summer Albus graduated. Our sister…she wasn't well. When she was a little girl she'd been playing outside one day and she got attacked by three muggle boys. We're not really sure what happened or why, we assumed she must have done accidental magic and they saw her and wanted to know how she'd done it… All we do know is they did something to her and she was never the same again afterwards. She lost control of her magic, she'd get agitated and have fits and it would just lash out wildly. I was the only one that could keep her calm. I was her favorite." he said with quiet pride. 

"Our father, when he found out, well, he was furious and he hunted down those boys and killed them for what they'd done. When they asked why he'd done it, he never said a word to defend himself. He was afraid they'd take her off us, because of secrecy, and she'd be locked up for something that wasn't her fault. He went to prison with his head held high and died there. Our mother, she moved us all to Godric's Hollow for a new start. It wasn't much of a new start, because people still talked, but it was better than it had been in our old village. Albus went off to school that September, known as the boy with the muggle killer for a father, under a cloud of suspicion and disdain. By the end of the year he had everyone eating out of the palm of his hand. He learned to schmooze and lie and manipulate at our mother's knee, you see. That's how she raised us. Secrets and lies…and Albus? He was a natural." he sneered with long held bitterness. 

He centered himself and picked up his story where he'd left off. 

"In time I went off to school as well, and left mother and Ariana with just each other. Years passed and all seemed well, but that year, just as Albus was set to graduate, Ariana had a fit and couldn't be calmed no matter what our mother did. Her magic lashed out… and our mother died." He sighed, then his face twisted with bitterness once more. 

"Albus was furious. He was all set to go off on his grand tour, ready to unleash his 'greatness' on the world…instead, he had to come back to quiet little Godric's Hollow and take care of us. He sulked, he sneered, he was unbearable. Even I had a hard time keeping Ariana calm with him in such a mood. Then Bathilda Bagshot, our neighbor, introduced him to her great nephew by marriage who'd just come to stay with her. He was a fifteen year old pretty-boy prat by the name of Gellert Grindlewald." He glanced at Mr. Lovegood when he sucked in a shocked breath at the revelation. "Yeah, that Gellert Grindlewald. Oh they got on like a house on fire, formed a mutual admiration club right from the start. Albus forgot all about us quick enough, he was off prancing around with him from first thing in the morning to last thing at night, then he'd prance off to his room to owl back and forth with him all night. Eventually the summer ended, and they tell us they're going to run away together and conquer the world…and that they're taking Ariana with them! Well, naturally I told them no! She's not well, I told them. She can't handle the stress of travelling, and when you're with that prat you forget she even exists! I told him they could prance off and do whatever they wanted, but Ariana was staying with me and I'd take care of her. Albus argued, told me I needed to finish school…but then that ruddy bastard started yelling about _"how dare I get in the way of their great destiny and who did I think I was"_ …and then he pulled his wand and started hexing me! Then Albus did too and joined him!" the crowd gasped in dismay, which made Aberforth roll his eyes in annoyance.

"So, there I was, trying to hold off those two stinking, arrogant bastards, and then Ariana peeked inside and saw them attacking me. I guess she got scared for me or something. She threw herself in the way of the curses, trying to protect me. She died." he concluded, with tears in his eyes. "That bastard Grindlewald panicked and ran off like the cowardly louse he was. Albus just stood there looking stunned. He went and locked himself up in his room for a bit, then wandered off to make arrangements for Ariana's funeral. I broke his nose at the service. I told him it was all his fault it happened. He didn't even try to defend himself, because he knew it too. He sent me off back to school at summer's end. Sold our house to Bathilda. He bought me this place, to secure a future for me, then he went off on his grand tour like he'd originally planned." 

"Thank you for sharing your story with us." Harry said quietly. "We just have one more question."  
"Your brother's wand, the one he has now. When did he get it?" Tom asked.

"Huh? He's had it since he was a kid. Creepy thing, I always thought. Looks like a long, bony finger." 

Tom and Harry looked at each other and nodded.

"Look, what's this all about?"

"Like we said, you'll all understand as the story unfolds. If you want to know more, our next stop is Hogwarts." 

With that, Tom and Harry headed for the door, looking like bloodhounds on the hunt. The rest of the group exchanged glances and scrambled after them. Aberforth huffed, summoned his cloak, put a 'closed' sign on the door and tromped after them. 

 

"Sybil not joining us tonight?" Dumbledore asked curiously.

"No. You know her. She said that _'fate is shuffling its deck'_ and the _'mystic resonances are singing'_ and she can't possibly be around so many people tonight." McGonagall huffed. 

She muttered quietly under her breath about 'wooly nonsense' and 'bloody seers', but Dumbledore pretended not to hear her. There were only a couple of children staying at Hogwarts for the break, so they and the staff were using a single smaller table to host dinner for the duration. Hogwarts during the holidays made for pleasant surroundings at least. The great hall was decorated to look like a winter forest, each of the trees sprinkled with snow and adorned with lights and fairies, who preened whenever anyone glanced at them. 

"Sybil doesn't seem to be the only one agitated tonight." Flitwick commented. "The ghosts seem on edge as well." 

The rest of them glanced up and saw that indeed, the ghosts were hovering far above, not swooping around or chatting with the denizens of the great hall as was their wont. 

The last students staying over had just taken their seats, so Dumbledore smiled at everyone beneficently and held his arms wide from his seat at the end of the table. "Tuck in. We don't want to let the most excellent feast go to waste, after all." 

Snape very quietly and unobtrusively rolled his eyes at the looks of awe that always crossed the children's faces whenever the headmaster started grandstanding. He was often surprised that the kitchen elves hadn't rebelled in all the years he'd been headmaster, what with him always taking credit for all their hard work, and leaving the (non-pureblood) children under the impression he created feasts on command by waving his hands once.  
He himself had believed so once. To this day it left him cringing to know he had ever been so gullible.

They were all in the midst of a quiet, convivial dinner, when suddenly Dumbledore straightened in his seat, looking concerned and began to rise to his feet.

"Albus?"

"There's a large crowd of people at the gate. Was anyone expecting company?"

"No."

"No."

Dumbledore pulled his wand and held it loosely by his side. The heads of house exchanged a worried look and all turned to watch the doors to the great hall, as did the few students who remained. They were all beginning to look frightened, seeing the tension in all the staff. They all heard the doors slam open, and could even feel the breeze that flew in with them from where they sat. The winds were picking up outside, and the great hall ceiling showed the clouds racing past. There was likely a storm coming in. Everyone's faces creased in confusion when Harry Potter and Tom Riddle marched into the great hall side by side. 

"Expelliarmus."  
"Accio Wand." 

The staff jumped to their feet in confusion as Dumbledore's wand flew from his hand and went tumbling over all their heads, only to be grasped in mid-air by the two boys. Everyone began pulling their wands to point at the two boys, who to their confusion (and irritation) then proceeded to ignore them to study the wand they'd stolen. Dumbledore was ashen, and looked ready to keel over at any minute. He looked like his greatest nightmares had just come to life right in front of him. 

Everyone's confusion only mounted as several more students and a host of adults came scrambling into the great hall on the heels of the boys and spread out, looking around like they weren't sure what was going on either. 

"What on earth is going on here? Boys! You will explain yourselves now!" McGonagall barked.

"You'll be lucky if you aren't both expelled for this!" Snape was quick to add.

"Will someone tell us what's going on?" Flitwick demanded.

"Actually, we'd all like to know." Remus spoke up.

The boys concluded their examination of the wand, and seemed satisfied…and disturbed…by whatever they'd found.

"Very well. If you'll all take a seat. We'd like to tell all of you a story."  
"It happened long ago, when our ancestors met death on the road one night."  
"Though it likely wasn't a road, but an island"  
"And they hadn't met death, they had met something that looked vaguely like the grim reaper of stories, something they had no other name for."  
"Namely a dementor. The head dementor of Azkaban. He's the thousand year old immortal."  
"And no one has found him up until now because he was in the one place no one would look for him."  
"Namely, in prison."

"What on earth are you silly geese going on about?" McGonagall barked, already at the end of her patience.

"If you would let us explain…"  
"Yes. Take a seat, and let us tell you about the longest lived dark lord in history"  
"The one who preceded…and likely gave birth to…every dark lord that came after."  
"So sit down, be quiet, and let us tell you a story. In some ways, it begins long ago with a fellow aptly named Herpo the Foul, and has tendrils in ancient Egypt as well."  
"Sadly, our dementor friend didn't learn from the mistakes of others, and sought this tainted immortality for himself as well."  
"And he succeeded. However, when the downsides of his chosen method of immortality began to show, he didn't repent and undo it like Herpo the Foul did..."  
"...and he didn't do other weird stuff to himself and end up becoming a mummy like the Egyptian wizards did."  
"Instead, he created three items to allow himself to prey on the populace once he completed his transformation--items that allowed him to get around all the pesky downsides his condition created."  
"Those three items were an invisibility cloak that allowed him to hide his wretched form from view."  
"The resurrection stone, which allowed him to call back spirits of the dead to surround him and hide his fearsome aura from his victims."  
"And the elder wand, which both anchored his immortality, and allowed him to bypass such pesky obstacles as running water."

Dumbledore slowly sat down, looking stunned. 

"He continued, possibly for many years, along his merry way, feeding on the misery of others, gobbling down the occasional soul…until one day, something happened that eventually ended his reign of terror."  
"He ended up starting a feud between two clans, and as the conflict grew, one group turned the other group into quintapeds."  
"That's where the three Peverell brothers come in. Whether they had just heard rumors of the conflict and had come to investigate, or they were just passing by, we don't know…"  
"But what we do know is that they realized something was there and managed to disarm him and relieve of the items that kept him hidden and escape. You all know how the story goes from there. "Death" was trapped, the brothers fled. One was murdered"  
"Another committed suicide."  
"And the last led a quiet life and drew no attention to himself."  
"Antioch, foolishly, bragged about his unbeatable wand, won from the hand of death itself. He was murdered in the night and the wand stolen…and from there it passed into the pages of history"  
"Always at the center of major conflicts, sought by those who desired power"  
"Always moving from hand to hand, taking the souls of those foolish enough to covet it"  
"Until one day…it ended up in the hands of a child, in a little village called Godric's Hollow."

Aberforth sat down with a thump and began to look as ill as his brother did.

"In the hands of that child it performed great feats of magic, and won the child much acclaim."  
"It also slowly whispered poison into his ear, and ignited within him a desire for power…and to conquer the world."  
"However, just as he was prepared to go off into the world to do so, tragedy struck at home. His mother had died, and left him with two younger siblings to care for."  
"He felt thwarted, and resentful, wasting away in that quiet village while the world awaited his mastery. And then one day, he met a boy."  
"A boy as clever, as ambitious, and as eager to conquer as he was."  
"They became instant friends, spent every day together"  
"And every night owling back and forth and making plans on how to conquer the world. They were eager to get started, there was just one problem--one of the boys had two younger siblings to take care of. The elder of the two was no problem. He would be heading back to school soon. The younger had never been to school. She'd had something done to her when she was a little girl that made her lose control of her magic. She'd been hidden away by her family so she wouldn't be taken from them. The boys were chomping at the bit, certain that destiny awaited. And so it was decided, they would take the little girl with them. However, when they shared this plan with her brother, he objected and refused to let them take her. She wasn't well. It would be too stressful. They didn't know how to take care of her. The boys, angry at being thwarted, attacked. The girl, horrified at seeing her brother so beset by their eldest brother and his new best friend, flung herself in the way to protect him."  
"And she died."

Those gathered were on the edge of their seats, even those who had heard the story just an hour before.

"The eldest brother was shaken by the tragedy…and for him it was like a filmy gauze had been peeled away from his eyes. He saw then the true price of the dreams he'd been contemplating since childhood, whispered into his ear by the wand that was always by his side."  
"His friend however, though shaken by the sudden death of the young girl, remained fixed on the plans they'd made, and decades later emerged as the Dark Lord Grindlewald, bent on conquering Europe." 

The audience gasped, and turned to peek at Dumbledore, who was sitting with his head bent, looking bereft.

"They, and many, many others over the years have become obsessed with seeking the hallows, and uniting them in order to become 'master of death', thinking it would make them immortal."  
"And it would…just not in a way that any right-thinking individual would ever want."  
"In truth, the whole quest, every bit of it was a big trick perpetrated on the world by the maker of the items. He seeded hints which slowly burbled out into the wider world. If someone managed to complete the quest, they would unite the items and return them to him."  
"And they would become immortal…when "death" gobbled part of their soul and they rose as a dementor like him."  
"But then the hive would move, because "death" had his wand back, and it would allow them to escape the prison. The head dementor, the one you have to destroy in order to get rid of the hive would be hidden away at the center--invisible, undetectable, and with the source of his immortality held fast in his hand at the center of the hive."  
"Who then would have spread out, gobbling souls at will, making more of them as they feasted, while the only way to kill them walked free and hidden."  
"And that's the story. The only part we don't yet know is who he was in life, why he wanted the Bloody Baron and the Grey Lady dead, why he hates Hufflepuff house and what he's got against Slytherins."  
"Which is why we now need to go to Azkaban to confront him and end his reign of terror once and for all."  
"Yeah that. After I get his autograph. I promised Professor Trelawney I would. She's got a frame waiting and everything." 

 

Dumbledore slowly rose to his feet and called for Fawkes, who appeared overhead in a burst of flame and sang a greeting. Snape hurriedly jumped to his feet and hustled after him. 

"Someone has to stay with the children. Don't worry. I'll tell you all about it later."

"You can't honestly be contemplating taking all these children to Azkaban, of all places! It's far too dangerous!"

"Luna and Colin have to come. They're here representing the press."

"Madness, but the younger Mr. Creevey at least will stay here!"

"Can't. He's our secret weapon. We need him to come." Dennis beamed and puffed his chest out in pride.

"What could he possibly do? He's a first year!"

"Yes he is, which is why he can't actually perform till we get there. Too much will tire him out." Harry apologized.

"Albus! Surely you're not going along with this madness?!"

"I would like to see the story to its end. I fear though that some of you, at least, will have to stay behind. Fawkes is, I will admit, quite an extraordinary creature, but even he has limits."

The rest of the crowd started clamoring in denial, as everyone present wanted to go and see how the story ended.  
Fawkes soared around overhead and began singing again, until the notes of his song seemed to make the very stones of the castle vibrate in tune with him and then vanished in another puff of flame. Before the last note died out he returned, accompanied by two more phoenixes, who sang their own greetings to the crowd. One landed on Xenophilius' shoulder, one on Snape's shoulder, while Fawkes alighted on Dumbledore's shoulder, looking quite proud of himself.

"Ah. It would seem our transportation problems have been solved."

_"We're going too!"_

_"Yes, we deserve to! He killed us!"_

_"I don't want to stay here alone!"_ The remaining house ghosts objected. 

Tom approached all of them and spoke quietly with them for a moment, and then moved to join Harry and the Dumbledore brothers around Fawkes. The ghosts floated back to the ceiling after nodding to him in acceptance. 

Xenophilius gathered Luna and the Creevey brothers up around him, which left Sirius, Remus and Loki to gather around Snape. Snape and Sirius glared at one another and bared their teeth. Remus sighed. Loki just laughed and batted them both in the back of the head and said "Behave, children." much to their mutual chagrin and outrage.

The remaining teachers and students watched with envy as the three phoenixes and their twelve passengers vanished one after another, leaving a ringing silence in their wake. A few moments later the Grey Lady, the Bloody Baron, the Fat Friar, Moaning Myrtle and Professor Binns all disappeared from their spots one after another.

Minerva McGonagall retook her seat and cast a quick heating charm on her own and the students' forgotten dinner.

"I swear. That man. He doesn't pay me enough for this nonsense." 

 

When the group reappeared, they were in the midst of a towering fortress shaped like a tall, hollow triangle. The black stone on all sides seemed to radiate a pervasive chill, and it was dark there; the fortress stood so high, that only a dim triangle of sky could be seen far above. Sirius whimpered and drew his wand with shaking fingers, fumbling it as he tried to grip it. 

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Snape, Albus, Tom, Harry, Remus, Luna, Aberforth, Colin and Xenophilius all cried out in unison.

A silvery doe, a phoenix, a snake, a magpie, a wolf, a raven, a goat, lion and a strange little pig with a crumpled horn burst into being around them and began to circle the gathered wizards and witch watchfully. Moments later a big silvery dog joined the rest and took its place among the others. The chill began to rise and with it the darkness, until the patroni were but little specks of silver light surrounding them. 

"Stand fast, everyone! Hold steady, or we all are lost!"

"Dennis…there's your cue. You can do it." 

Luna steadied the younger boy as he drew his wand and pointed it skyward.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" 

Everyone was forced to shield their eyes as a burst of silver-white light exploded from Dennis' wand, nearly filling the courtyard around them. The dementors could now be seen, descending on them from all sides of the fortress, outlined against the brightness of the patronus as it continued to grow and expand. When it finally stopped growing, the bottom half of it split into ten tentacles and shot skyward, forming a protective dome over their heads. 

The adults in the group, all of them gaping, turned to look at the panting first year, who was nevertheless smiling in glee at the looks on their faces.

"It's the giant squid. He fell in the lake on his way to the castle first year. It fished him out and kept him from drowning." Tom explained with a small grin. "Up until he did that, we all thought Colin had the most impressive patronus in the lot." he gestured to the lion that was charging the oncoming dementors fiercely. 

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled so brightly it looked like he was ready to pop out another patronus from them.

"Most impressive, my boy. You'll certainly get a chocolate frog for that feat!"

"Yeah? Wow!" 

 

While most of the dementors swooped upwards to escape, one of them, slightly larger than the others, continued to descend towards them, though very, very carefully.

"There he is. Let that one through." 

The patroni, though they all looked unhappy at the order, made a path to let the dementor through and then cut off his escape. The dementor, eyes fixed on the wand, and hands outstretched, drew to a sudden halt when a second phoenix patronus erupted from the wand to stand as a barrier between Dumbledore, Tom, Harry and itself.

**"Why do you hesitate? You have completed my quest, returned my belongings to me. Come and taste your reward. Eternal life will be yours, as promised."**

_"Good lord! It's Merlin! You treacherous bastard!"_  
_"Why, Merlin? You were supposed to be my friend!"_

The crowd stirred as the three house ghosts pressed forward to stand before the dementor, radiating fury.

"You know him?" Tom demanded.

_"It's Merlin!"_

"What?!" Dumbledore said faintly, aghast.

_"Not that one. He was long dead when this fellow came along. He was the muggleborn."_

Harry blinked and turned to look at the ghosts in interest.

"The muggleborn? As in singular?"

_"Well, yes. He was the only one. A strange creature who arose out of nowhere and brought ruin to Hogwarts…tried to anyway."_

"Wait, you're saying all that stuff about how Slytherin didn't want the muggleborn to attend Hogwarts, they were talking about one individual, not 'the muggleborn' plural?" Snape spoke up.

_"Of course not. There was only one of them. Lord Slytherin never liked him. He thought he should have stayed with the remnants of Arthur and the other Merlin's people. Their whole thing was wizards and muggles living together. There were wizards among them. Lord Slytherin thought he should have simply stayed with them to be trained. as his family were all muggles. He didn't want him there, as he feared he would be a saboteur in our midst and lead them right to us. The others argued in favor of keeping him as every witch or wizard we took from them was one less that could be used against us. Lord Slytherin told them he'd be the death of all of us. He was right."_

**"Not quite. Your precious Lord Slytherin and his brood escaped my grasp."** Merlin, the dementor, hissed. 

_"Why did you do it?" the Bloody Baron demanded. "You lived among us, worked with us, called yourself friend! You bewitched me and sent me off to kill Helena!"_

**"I was carrying on my ancestor's great work, of course!"**

_"Wretch! You don't even know for sure that Merlin was your ancestor! You are nothing but a liar and a treacherous betrayer!"_ Helena snarled.

**"I am the greatest sorcerer who ever lived! To complete my ancestor's great work I determined to seize Hogwarts to bring it in line with the rest of the kingdoms. Were it not for your precious Lord Slytherin I would have succeeded in conquering the kingdom single-handedly!"**

"I think rumors of your…greatness…have been greatly exaggerated." Dumbledore said with some disdain.

"Yeah, big time. You didn't succeed in conquering Hogwarts. All you did was murder some people who called you friend. Because of you, every muggleborn that's attended Hogwarts since you has done so under a cloud of unease and suspicion, if not outright distaste." Harry growled.

"It's been a thousand years. You never did succeed in eradicating the Slytherin bloodline. It continues to this day. In me." Tom agreed.

"You have spread madness, chaos, war and death wherever your touch reached. The students of my school have been cursed, the dissension you've sown has wreaked havoc on the population for generations." 

"You're also massively gross. I mean, seriously. Have you looked at yourself lately? You're all rotted and… _ugh!_ "

The dementor had remained unmoved by the condemnation of his former friends, the descendant of his Slytherin nemesis, and the scolding of the headmaster. It was not until his appearance was touched on that they got even a small reaction. The dementor pulled his rotted, scabrous hands close to his body and half hid them in the rotted, wispy robes he wore. 

"I'd conjure a mirror so you could see the rotted corpse you inhabit these days…but you no longer have eyes do you? Do you even have a brain? It seems unlikely. You'd think that would have been long gone by the time you'd rotted enough for your legs to fall off." Tom quipped, his voice thick with revulsion--and though most there didn't know it, self-loathing. 

He himself had once been so mad and deluded, he had nearly ended up a twisted, rotted, soul-sucking thing like the beast in front of him. Haunting the halls of Azkaban was likely a merrier fate than what had awaited the mummies who had been just as deluded, but only just. Seeing it now, up close and personal, feeling the icy dread the thing evoked by its mere presence, he felt ill at what he'd done to himself, though he could at least find comfort that he hadn't sunk to the depths of performing the sick ritual that was usually used to do it. The thing in front of him probably had…and even now, in the husk of his rotted body, trapped in prison for hundreds of years, he seemed to have no regrets, only delusions of grandeur. 

"I believe this creature has…"

"Wait!"

Dumbledore turned to Harry impatiently. He'd been all prepared to make a grandiose speech.

"I still need his autograph. Um…does anyone have any parchment? I kind of forgot to bring any…" Several people in the crowd facepalmed, and Harry pouted at them.

Luna removed a bit of parchment and handed him her ever-inking quill. Harry tapped the parchment with his wand to make it stiff and levitated it to the dementor, who stared at him blankly.

"I need your autograph. I promised my divination teacher."

Tom exerted a bit of will on the wand. The dementor scrawled on the parchment and set the quill down on it. Harry pulled it back and waved a hand at Dumbledore to continue. Dumbledore huffed a bit in irritation, before drawing himself up once more.

"I believe this creature has fouled our fair society long enough. Let us end this."

"Gladly." Tom agreed, holding out half the wand to Dumbledore. "Harry? Would you like to do the honors?"

Harry drew the knife Loki had given him. It was made of some exotic metal called Uru that was normally forged by space dwarves in the heart of a dying star, or so he said. He figured it was likely to stand up to any protections the creature had placed on the wand.

**"Wait! What are you…! NO!"**

The patroni surged to form a shield between the dementor and all of them as it surged forward, heedless of the danger. Harry sliced downward through the wand and a soundless shockwave of light burst forth from the broken pieces. Souls, hundreds of them, began pouring forth, including one that was darkened, twisted and mutilated--obviously Merlin from the way the ghosts were hissing at it. Suddenly a very tall woman in a strange headdress and mask was there behind the dementor. She reached out and gripped its head, as well as the mutilated piece of him from the wand.

**_"Got you. Thought you'd evade me, did you? Think again, wretch."_ **

Both pieces of soul twitched and writhed in horror and slowly turned to ash in her hands, and from the dementor half, hundreds more souls burst forth and began flying free around the towering woman.

The Merlins' resounding **_"Noooooooooooooooo"_** echoed strangely as they disappeared, as though they were tumbling down a long well. 

The freed souls continued to flitter in a cloud around all of them as the patroni slowly disappeared, now that they were no longer needed. Far above, the constant gloom that shrouded Azkaban slowly dissipated and weak winter sunlight poured down on them, blinding after the dementor-induced gloom.

"Father?" Dumbledore suddenly exclaimed. One of the souls that had been released from the dementor did look rather like Dumbledore--a cross between he and his brother, actually.

"Ariana!" Aberforth said a moment later. A young girl, about Harry's age, stopped milling and looked at Aberforth with joy.

Dennis suddenly looked upward and pointed. "Look! Pegasuses!"

"Pegasi." Remus and Snape corrected absently. 

"There's people on them. Do the aurors have a pegasi brigade these days?" Sirius wondered. 

"Not that I'm aware of." Dumbledore replied, just as the tall woman made a sound of disgust in her throat. 

_**"Ugh! Just once it would be nice to just do my job without that lot interfering!"** _

"If I may be so bold my dear girl…Um…who are you?" Dumbledore questioned the woman.

_**"Queen of Hel, guardian of the unworthy dead. Hela Lokadottir."** _

Dumbledore blinked a few times, nonplussed by this shocking revelation, but then he heard Sirius, Remus and Snape all choke out **"LILY?!"**

His head whipped around and he saw the two Pegasi each had an armored woman atop it, and one of them, resplendent in gold, with her red hair blazing in the sunlight, was most certainly the very much deceased Lily Evans Potter. As she and her dark-haired companion, who looked vaguely familiar for some reason, drew closer, a third of the souls began to glow with gentle golden light. 

The two Pegasi flew amongst the crowd, tapping the golden souls with their spears, until they disappeared one by one. The self-described "queen Hela" moved among the remaining grey souls touching them one by one and turning them to ash. Dumbledore made a sound of distress when his father was one of those who turned to dust under her touch. He then spotted his sister, long dead…and if her presence here was any indication, dead at his hands through the poisonous power of the wand he'd wielded for most of his life. 

"Ariana. I'm so sorry, sister." he whispered.

Ariana gazed back at him solemnly for a moment and then smiled in forgiveness. Albus choked on a sob he couldn't quite contain. The dark haired woman accompanying Lily tapped her with her spear and she slowly vanished. He and Aberforth both held out their hands as though to grasp her back, but it was already too late. 

As the crowds thinned out, more people that were recognized were seen.

Sirius took his eyes off Lily for a moment and then did a double-take. "Cassandra Crouch? What is she…?!"

"Uncle Morfin…and my grandfather." Tom whispered ruefully just as Marvolo Gaunt spotted him. He blanched…inasmuch as a ghost could blanch, grabbed his son's arm and pointed.

 _"It's that damn muggle! I thought you killed him, boy! Bah! Never send a lackwit boy to do a man's job. I'll kill the filth myself!"_ he hissed hatefully.

Tom's eyes widened, but then one of the Pegasi landed between he and his grandfather and uncle with a thud.

 _"Stay away from my son!"_ she hissed back at him.

Morfin and Marvolo gaped at the resplendent figure clad in golden armor atop a snow-white Pegasus that towered far above both their heads, and then their faces creased in mutual disbelief and outrage.

_"Merope? You daft cow! Who do you think ye are, giving orders? Eh? Well? Stupid squib! Worthless as ever, I see."_

"Queen Hela? If you could take these two next I would greatly appreciate it." 

_**"I wish I could say it was my pleasure."**_ Hela said with distaste as she swatted both men in the back of the head and turned them to ash. 

Merope nodded her thanks and speared a few more golden souls. The last few were near Lily, which meant she could spare a moment for personal business before she had to return.  
Tom was seemingly rooted to the spot when she turned, finally, to look at him.

"M-mother?"

"Hello, my son." 

"Your eyes…?"

"I'm dead, Tom. You get some say over things. I think I might be taller too. I was at everyone's mercy when I was alive. I wanted to be a bit more imposing in my death."

"I think you succeeded." 

Merope laughed as she slid down off her horse and approached the son she had only seen for a moment as she lay dying. Tom remained rooted to the spot as she approached him and cupped his face in her hands.

"You look just like your father. I had hoped you would. I was so afraid you'd end up looking like me or Morfin. She stepped forward and wrapped him in a firm embrace, blinking tears out of her eyes as she did so. This interlude was a gift, but it was already drawing to a close.

 _"You did a lot of bad things, Tom."_ she hissed quietly for his ears alone. She felt him flinch in her grip and tightened her arms. _"I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you, that you grew up so alone and so unhappy. I'm so, so sorry. I gave you everything, so that you would live and thrive. There wasn't enough left for me."_

Tom let out a small sound that was akin to a small animal dying. 

_"Hush. That was my choice. My beautiful baby boy. I wanted you to live. I had a very unhappy life. You were the only good thing in it. It was an easy decision to make. I wish I could have been there to raise you and see you grow, but it just wasn't possible. You made a lot of bad decisions, my son. I think you already know that though. You have a second chance. Don't waste it."_

She stepped back a bit, keeping her hands on his shoulders. 

"I wish I could say some words of wisdom, or leave you with witty advice… All I can really leave you with is things I learned from my own life. There will be people in your life who will look down on you and mistreat you, no matter what you do or say, and they'll be like poison to you. Don't waste your time on them. Find the people who will lift you up, not push you down, and cherish them. Cut the others out of your life as soon as possible and don't look back. If they change their ways, you can give them a chance, but otherwise, make a clean break of it. That's the thing I learned. It's okay to love yourself and look after your own interests sometimes. Also, love potions are a bad idea. It doesn't create real love, and it's empty in the end. Real love is worth waiting for. I can't say I really regret what I did, because it gave me you…but they're a bad idea."

"Did you, uh, meet someone?" Tom asked uneasily. 

Merope beamed and nodded. "I did! He's one of the Einherjar! His name is Regulus Black! He died a long time after I did, but it hardly matters once you're dead."

"I'm, uh, actually living with his elder brother, Sirius. He, uh…"

"Yes, Tom, I know. He told me the story." 

Tom dropped his gaze for a moment, and then forced himself to look back at her. "Will you tell him that I'm sorry? I wasn't…"

"I know. He knows too." 

She sighed then and pulled him in for another firm hug. 

"I have to return now, Tom. I've been here too long already." she said regretfully. 

She released him and kissed him gently on his forehead, before stepping back. 

"I'll need to take that with me." she pointed to the ring on his finger. It's not really a power meant for mortal hands." 

Tom grimaced-- now that he knew what it was, he'd hoped to use it to question the great wizards of the past--but he pulled it free and handed it over without further argument. 

"It will be kept safe in the All-father's vault." 

Tom just nodded, feeling slightly bitter.

"Farewell, my son. Make me proud."

"I'll do my best."

She smiled and hopped back onto her Pegasus, who flapped its wings and leapt upward into the sky. His gaze followed her until she was out of sight.  
He looked over and saw Lily Potter alighting on her own horse, then smiling down at Harry, Remus, Sirius and Snape, before her horse gave a mighty leap and followed. 

Tom sighed and wiped at his face. He was rather embarrassed to find that it was wet and his eyes felt gritty. He tried to console himself that meeting your dead mother who you'd never known, if only for a moment, was probably a time it was permissible to weep like a baby. Once he'd composed himself somewhat, he looked around and saw Dumbledore and his brother both looked similarly weepy, as did Harry, Sirius, Remus and Professor Snape. 

Luna and her father were perched on stools, while "Hela, Queen of the unworthy dead" was perched on a throne she seemed to have conjured up at some point. Luna seemed to be interviewing her. Dennis was asleep on a cot someone had conjured up for him. Colin was taking pictures--no surprise there. That's when Tom realized the ghosts were all missing. He glanced at Hela and wondered if she'd taken them. Hogwarts was going to seem strangely empty if she had. 

The sky overhead was suddenly eclipsed. Everyone looked up and gaped in fearful horror at the truly massive snake that seemed to be peering down at all of them in interest. 

**"Mommy?"**

"Jormungand!" Loki exclaimed cheerfully.

**_"Hey, Jor."_** Hela waved idly from her throne. 

**"Sister? You are here as well? Was there a family reunion I was not told about?"**

_**"I'm here on business, sadly."**_

"Jormungand, I'll be there in a moment." 

Loki gestured for Tom and Harry to join him. Once they had, he grasped each by the arm and all three disappeared in a flash of green/gold magic. All those left behind shaded their eyes, and could just make out three tiny figures perched atop the tower, level with the massive serpent, whose eyeballs were bigger than any of them. 

They were all distracted from the sight by the sudden arrival of several aurors, a team of hitwizards, Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour. They looked around at the strange tableau, boggled at the giant serpent when one of the hitwizards squeaked and pointed, and then sighed. 

"Alright…who's going to tell us what the hell has been going on around here?"


	6. A new purpose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to school.

"The holiday went by really fast, didn't it?" Ron sighed as he Harry and Neville made their way into the great hall.

"Yeah, it did. More so than usual. We didn't even get any work done…well, on our gardening, anyway. We were all actually kind of busy." Harry agreed.

"Yeah? Anything interesting?"

"Well…we met Loki's son and daughter. He has another two sons, but we didn't meet them."

"Oh? He has kids already? Where've they been? Why haven't you met them before?" Neville asked.

"They're grown…and they both live far away. Hela's got a… top management position that takes up a lot of her time. Loki said he never gets to see her as often as he'd like. Jor has…a condition…that makes him unable to visit often. Still, we met them, and Loki was happy to see them both, though neither could stay as long as he would have liked. We still haven't met Loki's parents, but they both sent us something for Christmas…Yule. That was nice too."

"Yeah? Sounds good, mate. Heh, if your family keeps increasing at the rate it's going, your family will be almost as big as mine!"

"Huh. Weird, right? How about you? You were a bit scanty on details of your own holiday earlier on the train."

Ron's face and ears turned red and he fidgeted. Harry raised his eyebrows and Neville sat forward in interest.

"Now I really want to know." 

Ron rolled his eyes and fidgeted uncomfortably a moment, then looked around to see if Hermione was still chatting with McGonagall.

"I went to Hermione's house for a bit."

"Ooooh?" Neville said suggestively while waggling his eyebrows.

Ron's already red ears turned purple as his face began suffusing with color. "It weren't like that! How many times do I have to tell you lot we're just friends, eh?"

"Sorry Ron, do go on." Neville said wryly.

"I just went over her house, had dinner with her and her parents, watched a movie."

"Hey! You said it right! Good on you, mate!" Harry congratulated him. "What did you watch?"

"Star Wars. Hermione complained, but I thought it was brilliant. I dunno why Tom's so…." Ron switched topics hurriedly once he realized he was about to spill into forbidden territory. "Folks there didn't have to wear nothing special to go tooling around in space." 

"Then they likely weren't in space, they were inside their ships, which is completely different. Muggle astronauts don't wear their protective suits most of the time they're in space while inside their ships, just to go outside to make repairs and stuff. If there had been any scenes of them actually in space outside of a ship they would have been wearing protective gear of some sort."

"Oh. I had wondered about that. If you…"

"Maybe another time, Ron?" Harry said quietly, before adding in a stronger voice. "Did you like it? The movie, I mean?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. It was alright. Darth Vader made me think about mummies though. He was sort of entombed inside that weird bug-suit he had, wasn't he? It was keeping him alive long after he should have died, and it made him crazy and all. It was alright in the end, though he still came back as a ghost." he added sadly. "I guess Princess Leia must have been a squib. Her twin brother could see them, the ghosts I mean, but she couldn't. That seems sad. She never knew he was her dad…'course, she might not have wanted to after he blew up her planet and all, so I guess it's just as well…." Ron frowned and looked a bit green. "You know, now that I think on it, that movie was pretty awful, wasn't it?" 

Hermione sat down a moment later, looking slightly ruffled. Harry figured she'd been checking to make sure she could continue divination. It meant swallowing her pride, but there was no way she was going to drop the class for good since none of the rest of them had.

"What were all of you talking about?"

"Star wars."

Hermione huffed slightly. "My parents are big sci-fi buffs."

"You're not?"

"I've never been a big fan of fiction of any sort. I prefer to deal with more concrete matters."

"I've heard it said in the muggle world that sci-fi writers are prophets for modern times. At lot of things they speculated about decades ago are slowly becoming reality. They had already sent men into space when those movies came out, so the thought of an advanced space-faring community was no longer so far-fetched, right?"

"I suppose, but it still all seems rather silly."

"Really?" Ron said uneasily. "Space stuff and all that…you really don't like it?"

"Like I said, I prefer to concentrate on real things, not fantasies." she shook her head and frowned--probably still disgruntled at having to continue divination if he made any guess. "So, how were your holidays?"

"Good."

"Same here."

"Anything interesting happen?"

"Some stuff. You can read about it later this month in the Quibbler."

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Oh?"

"Yeah… Loki's daughter Hela should be in there. Luna interviewed her. I tried to convince her to stop by next Hogsmeade weekend to meet Hagrid. She's really tall. From what I understand she's had trouble finding dates. I figured, hey, Hagrid's tall, and he's single, so…"

"Harry! Hagrid is a lovely man but…"

"I told her all about him. She seemed intrigued by his love of drinking and penchant for wrestling trolls. She has a two-headed wolf for a pet, so really, I think they'd get on fine." 

Hermione's face twisted up in disbelief. She loved Hagrid, but… Not to mention it was hard to picture any daughter of Loki's being "intrigued" by being told a man drank too much and liked wrestling trolls for fun.

"Did you tell her about his beard? Some women prefer a clean-shaven man."

"She likes beards. It's a "manly attribute" apparently. Loki thinks his homeland corrupted her, even though she didn't live there very long." 

"It'd be nice for Hagrid if they hit it off." Neville said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I thought so too."

Hermione suddenly smiled at Harry, who looked at her questioningly.

"I just noticed…you seem to be in good health. Did you have any accidents over the break?"

Harry smiled back impishly, which made her frown at him in confusion. "No. No accidents." he replied with good cheer.

"Were you sick at all?"

"Bit of a cold mid-week, easily taken care of." he chirped.

"Any of your relatives die suddenly?"

"Nope…but it turns out my cousin Dudley wrote to me last Christmas. I never opened the letter, see, so I didn't realize. I have pictures of my grandparents now. Turns out my mum was descended from a disowned line of the Blacks that seems to have gone squib." 

"She was? I thought she was muggleborn?" Ron said with some confusion.

"So your theory was right?" Neville said at the same time. "Huh. I wonder where you get your magic from, Hermione?"

"What are you talking about?"

"My mum. Her parents weren't muggles, they were squibs, though I don't know if they knew that or not. They might have. Aunt Petunia said they were happy to have a witch in the family." Harry shrugged. "Phinneas Nigellus, who all the current Blacks and assorted kin descend from, had a younger sister, Isla, who married a muggle and got disowned for it."

"That's barbaric!" Hermione sniffed with profound disdain.

"It's good sense."

"HARRY!"

"Secrecy. If she and her husband died, at some later point his muggle relatives might end up inheriting magical stuff if she hadn't of been. I'm certain there was some prejudice there as well, but it turns out that was the main reason squibs and folks who married muggles were disowned. It's all about secrecy. Any magical stuff that ends up in muggle hands gets seized by the Ministry and is never seen by the extended family again. So, like I said, it's actually good sense."

"So…you're a pureblood then?"

"I don't know how anyone would reckon it, and to be honest I'm not too worried about it one way or another. Mum's parents still weren't wizards either way, and I don't know if her father's family were a squib line as well or just her mum's. I have to do more research." 

"So…you might have magical heritage. Like I said, I wonder where it's from? You seem to spark with Black descendants, so there might be some Black in there in you somewhere too." Neville explained.

"That's ridiculous. There aren't any Blacks in my family." Hermione scoffed.

"Weren't in mine either. Evans on the one side, Hitchens on the other." 

Hermione stiffened slightly.

"You have an Evans or a Hitchens in your family, don't you?"

"My grandmother was a Hitchens…but I'm sure it's a common name. It doesn't mean anything."

"What was her name?"

"Chara." 

"Hang on a sec." Harry held up a hand and pulled the mirror from his pocket. "Sirius?"

"Yeah, pup? Something wrong? I wasn't expecting you to call tonight. Where are you? It's noisy…"

"We're in the great hall. Is Chara a star name?"

"Yeah. It's the beta star in the constellation Canum Venaticorum - the hunting dogs. Why?"

"Hermione Granger's grandmother was Chara Hitchens."

"I'll be damned. HA! I bet that'll tweak ol' Lucy's nose! I can't wait to tell him!" 

"That was all I really wanted."

"Alright. 'Night, pup. Have a good term."

"Bye, Sirius." 

Harry tucked the mirror away and shrugged. "So, we're apparently cousins of some sort. Go figure, right?" 

Hermione was ready to argue the point, but that's when Dumbledore stood and held his arms wide.

"Welcome, students. I do hope all of you had a cheerful, relaxing holiday and are now ready to begin the new term with eagerness and determination. Before we eat I have a few unusual announcements. I am afraid our remaining ghosts, at least those who were souls lost along the way and not just echoes of memory--namely our own Professor Binns, Moaning Myrtle, the Grey Lady, Fat Friar and the Bloody Baron, have all moved on quite suddenly. We, the staff here at Hogwarts, are hopeful that word of Professor Binns no longer being employed at Hogwarts will take a long while to spread beyond these walls" he gave all the shocked students a stern look that said he really meant that. "In the meantime, I have found a temporary, living, teacher to take over Professor Binns' classes till the end of the year. If you students behave well, and no vengeful ghosts come calling to haunt us all night and day, she may even agree to take on the position permanently. Now, tuck in!" 

It took a moment for the students to do that once the food appeared. The house ghosts, Myrtle and Binns were all gone. Hogwarts wasn't going to seem quite the same without them.

"No more bloody Binns! This is great!" Ron said with obvious delight.

"No more taking naps or doing homework in history." Hermione pointed out.

"I think you're both missing something important. Peeves is still here…but the Baron isn't." Harry reminded them.

"Oh no." Neville whimpered.

"Yeah." 

"I'm sure it will be fine. Dumbledore will take care of it. Did you all hear Professor Lockhart escaped Azkaban over the break?" Hermione asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, I did hear about that…though not till after it happened. They're calling him the dumbest criminal in the history of Azkaban. He was due to be released the following day. Now, if they catch him, he'll be in a few more years for escaping."

"That's nothing. Did you see the ad he took out in the Prophet. He's advertising his next book already. Gilderoy Lockhart: The Prisoner of Azkaban. What a tool." Neville said with disgust.

 

Classes resumed bright and early the next morning, which brought the return of Ron's griping about early mornings and sadistic teachers. Harry was both looking forward to and dreading Divination class. On the one hand, the look of aggravated consternation on Hermione's face was going to be fun to witness. On the other hand, she would be full of questions, and she was a champion nagger when she wanted to know something. In any case, the afternoon was going to be fun. Before the fun could begin, there was History. Joy.

"Nap time. Wish I didn't have to get up beforehand. Maybe I should just skip this class on Mondays. It's not like Binns will notice." Ron said contemplatively as they wandered into class.

"He wouldn't have, but I will. Take your seat, Mr. Weasley."

Ron gaped at the tall, dark-haired woman as the front of the classroom in astonishment.

"Oh…that's right. Binns is gone. I'd half thought I dreamed that."

"Andi? What are you…" Harry began, only to trail off when he realized she was looking at him. "Professor Tonks?" he said instead, an obvious question in his voice.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter. Please take your seats so the rest of the students can come in." 

What followed was an hour and a half long grueling review of the past two and a half years of history class. Everyone in the room got called on, and she expected you to answer swiftly and concisely. By the time the bell rang, the students were wrung out and shell shocked and went stumbling out of the room in a daze.

"I miss Binns." Ron whimpered.

Hermione, on the other hand, was glowing with satisfaction, though she looked slightly frazzled as well.

"At least she's following the same essay schedule Binns did. We won't end up falling too far behind. The loss of this time for homework is going to hurt though." Harry pointed out.

"Yeah. If it gets bad enough we might have to go back on these days to get that extra time back, though I can't say I'm looking forward to that. It makes for a long day." Neville agreed.

"Bloody hell." Ron sighed. 

They met up with the rest of their class at the foot of the divination tower. Hermione joined them without a word, though her glare seemed to be daring anyone to comment on her return. 

When they arrived in the classroom, Parvati and Lavender, who were both at the front of the line, gasped suddenly and ran to the front of the room where a new picture frame, the very one Professor Trelawney had shown them before school let out for the holidays, was hanging on display.

"Merlin? You met Merlin?" Lavender said breathlessly.

"I met a guy named Merlin. Anything more I'm afraid I can't tell you. You'll have to wait and read it in the Quibbler in two weeks."

"What? No fair!"

"Hey, be happy the story broke before their deadline or you would have had to wait until mid-February to find out." 

By lunchtime stories were flying far and fast. Hermione was irritated by the whole ridiculous thing. Why, she'd even heard some silly girl telling a bunch of others that Harry was responsible for Gilderoy Lockhart escaping from Azkaban over the break! What something like that even had to do with a supposed 'close encounter with death' she didn't know. The whole thing just left her in a bad mood, as had Trelawney claiming she had foretold that she herself would come _'slinking back to learn more about the 'inner eye' now that she'd seen its worth'_. Ugh! Why couldn't the rest of them have seen sense and just dropped the ridiculous class so she could too?

 

The rest of the week flew by in a flurry of classes, revision, homework and more homework. Hermione had managed to stay on top of everything all week, and now that the weekend was finally there she was looking forward to having free time to do some extra reading and research with her new Ravenclaw study group. They hadn't yet found anything they thought could get them published, but she was undaunted. They would find something and then they'd take the wizarding world by storm. 

She was rather surprised when the boys joined the rest of them at breakfast; she'd gotten used to them disappearing early on Saturday and not really being seen much for most of the weekend. They must have run out of juice for whatever little scheme they were working on. Prank items, if Anthony and the rest were right. What a ridiculous waste of time.

"What are all of you doing here?"

"Getting fortified for a long day."

"Plans today?" Neville asked curiously.

"I'm meeting Anthony and the others…"

"They're busy." Ron spoke up.

"Busy? No they're not!"

She had no sooner said that when Anthony came over, looking apologetic.

"Hey, Hermione? Study group is going to have to wait till this afternoon. Something came up."

"What is it?"

"Special project with, um, Hufflepuff…in uh, one of the classes we share with them. You know how it goes. We'll see you later, alright?"

"I see. I'll see you later then." Hermione replied. 

Once he'd slunk back to the Ravenclaw table, she eyed Ron suspiciously.

"How did you know they were going to be busy?"

"Uh…"

"We heard them talking when we were coming down." Neville smoothly interjected.

"Yeah. That." Ron agreed. Her eyes narrowed as his ears began turning red. 

"You're lying." 

"No I'm not! I just don't like being put on the spot like that!" 

She frowned at all of them and turned to Lavender and Parvati. 

"What are you two up to today? My plans seem to have been cancelled." 

Lavender and Parvati exchanged a look, then turned to Hermione with identical vapid smiles.

"We're going to talk about hair, clothes and makeup for the rest of the day!" Lavender chirped.  
"And boys…and ways boys can better style their hair, clothes and makeup!" Parvati agreed.

"Boys don't wear makeup." Hermione replied, voice flat.

"Maybe they should! A bit of eyeliner would make a fit boy extra dreamy." Lavender gamely insisted.

"Have fun with that." Hermione sighed, rolling her eyes.

She turned back to the boys glumly. "What are all of you going to be doing?"

"The twins said they made some new pranks." Neville spoke up before Ron could squirm.

"Of course they did." she rolled her eyes again. "You all should really think about doing something useful and worthwhile with your education." 

Ron just nodded and stayed focused on his plate and ate steadily so she couldn't trick him into saying anything incriminating. 

Ginny bounced in when breakfast was halfway over, freshly showered from quidditch practice. She squeezed herself into place between Dean and Seamus, much to Seamus' irritation, and batted her eyes at Dean.

"Practice is all done. I'm all yours for the rest of the day!" 

Dean froze like a deer in headlights for a half a second and then laughed uneasily.

"That's…great…uh, but I've got a thing…that I need to do. How's this afternoon sound?" 

Ginny's flirty smile faltered.

"A thing." she repeated.

"Yeah, a real, uh, important thing…that I have to do. This morning." 

"Well, if it's important, I'll help you."

"You can't. I'm…" 

Dean glanced at Seamus helplessly. 

"We're being initiated into a cult. Very prestigious. Invite only. You understand, right?" Seamus said cheerfully.

Ginny's expression went flat.

"You're being initiated into a cult." 

"Uh, yeah, sure am. Boy am I excited." Dean agreed, his voice just a bit dry, while he looked at Seamus as though to say _'Seriously? What the hell?'_ Seamus just grinned and shrugged.

 

Dean and Seamus left shortly afterwards. Ginny glumly joined Hermione as Harry and the boys, and Lavender and Parvati all left as well. Hermione glanced around and saw the rest of Harry's group all seemed to be missing, as did a good number of other people--Pansy's gang, Zabini, a good number of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws from her year, a good portion of fifth, sixth and seventh year as well. It was sort of depressing.

"Everyone seems to have plans but us."

"I had plans, Dean's just not cooperating." Ginny said sourly. "What the heck is it with boys? Here I am, offering to get acquainted with all the broom closets and out of the way corners of the castle…and he decides he'd rather go off and get initiated into a cult? I'm insulted!" 

"Do you think this cult of theirs is something to do with Harry and the rest of them? It would put all the evasiveness and secrecy in a whole new light…" Hermione mused. "I'm going to follow them, and this time I'm not letting any of the stupid portraits give me the run around!" 

An explosion and the sound of distant screaming reached their ears. Both girls, and the rest of those still lingering in the great hall, jumped to their feet to go investigate. 

As they got to the entryway they could see Filch prostate at the edge of one of the hallways far above.

"A whole crate of dungbombs!" they could hear him weeping.

Hermione looked around and realized all the portraits had run off to investigate at the first scream. She let out a frustrated yell of her own.

"Typical." Ginny sighed.

"Wait a minute…" Hermione said with irritation.

"What?"

"Harry keeps insisting Loki is the Loki of Norse myth…the god of mischief. Now, they're apparently all helping the twins develop pranks and running a cult! Harry started some sort of weird cult of Loki worshippers. I bet they even gave Peeves those dungbombs! Of all the idiotic…"

"You think they've formed a cult of pranksters to play tricks on Hogwarts?" 

"Yes. I think that's exactly what they've done. It certainly explains why I've been kept out! They know full well I'd never support such nonsense! Ugh! Boys! If that's all they've been up to, I'm well out of it. I'm going to the library."

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Come with me." 

Ginny let out a disgusted groan and drug herself along behind her.

"I cannot believe this is my life." 

 

Seamus looked around. "I think this is the right place, but I don't…"

"This way please." 

"Whoa, where'd you come from?"

"Hands."

"What…" 

They each reached out a hand and let Luna pull them past what looked to be a runic array on the floor.

"Just down the hall there, through the double doors."

"This way please." 

Dean looked back and saw Luna pulling a couple of Ravenclaw kids past the runes. He turned back and followed Seamus through the double doors at the end and looked around.

The whole place was very colorful--the benches were in alternating colors : green, red, blue, yellow, and a large Hogwarts seal took up most of the floor beneath their feet. The stage, as well as the wall behind it was black. A large screen hung on the wall directly behind the stage, high enough that it could be seen over the podium that stood front and center. A double row of chairs were lined up on the stage behind the podium, all of which were filled by all the folks that had been disappearing. Several of them had papers or note cards in their hands. On the far wall across from the door was a long table, behind which Professor Lupin sat, smiling mischievously at everyone. There were several boxes by his feet and packets of paper stacked on the table in front of him. There also seemed to be flags or large tapestries on either side of the stage, but they were rolled up to the ceiling. The benches were mostly filled by a variety of students--mostly third and fifth years with a couple of second and sixth years as well. They were from all houses, and all seemed as curious as they themselves were.

"Everyone take a seat. We'll be getting started in just a few minutes." Harry said from the podium. 

A dozen more people wandered in and took seats, then Luna arrived and went to join the group on the stage. The twins sauntered in a short while later, both looking rather pleased with themselves, and took seats on the stage, getting high fives from most of the others up there. The last to arrive was Tom Riddle, who shut and locked the door behind him and then stood in front of it.

"Alright! Quiet down! I'm sure all of you are curious to know why you've been brought here. Well, I'm here to answer some of your questions. Before we get started, I should warn you that we'll be covering some stuff that is top secret. You need to understand that by staying to hear the presentation you are in fact agreeing to be part of things here and to keep it all a secret as well. If you don't feel you can or want to do this, this is your chance to leave now with no repercussions. Anyone? Alright, then I should inform you that should you stay for the presentation and tour and then decide you don't want to be part of things, you will in fact be obliviated before being allowed to leave." Harry waited for the gasps to die down. "If you do not want that to happen and think you may not want to take part, again, I say now is the time to leave."

Everyone looked a bit uncertain, but no one budged. Tom Riddle at the door put up several wards over it and then moved to join the others on the stage. 

"Alright then, welcome everyone, to the Explorer's Club Incorporated."

At Harry's words, the big banners to either side of the stage unfurled, nearly to the ground. Both banners were the same--black background, the words "Explorer's Club Inc." writ large in white letters, and in the center a planet earth with a pith hat perched jauntily on its top, like it was about to go on safari into darkest Africa at any moment. Some of the students looked confused, some disappointed. Harry smirked at all of them as the screen behind his head began to light up.

"You have all been recruited to be part of the wizarding world's first ever space program."

 

Those in the audience went cross-eyed as they tried to wrap their minds around what Harry was saying; those up on the stage were hard pressed not to laugh at them. The screen began to fill with photos--muggle photos--showing the muggle space program, international space station, the footprints and flag on the moon, Cape Canaveral, where the space shuttle was shown, first with people milling around near its feet so they could get a real sense of just how big the damn thing actually was, and then another with the whole ground filled with flame as it ponderously lifted off. 

"The muggles have jumped ahead of us on this one, but sadly for them they won't hold the lead for long. It occurred to me and later to the rest of us that they have to go to a lot of trouble and expense to launch even a single ship into space. They've made tremendous strides, and I won't lie and say that our own space program doesn't owe quite a lot to the work they've done--it would be both churlish and patently untrue. The fact is though, with all the strides they've made, we as wizards and witches can come into the race late and skip ahead of them, because with magic we can do it easier, cheaper and faster. However, even with magic, it will be expensive, which is why our program is going to be in two parts. The first step is asteroid mining, both for raw materials and to fund the program. The goal, the end-game if you will, is to eventually move the whole wizarding population off planet and colonize our own, true magical world. I can see the questions on many of your faces-- _yeah, it's exciting, but Earth is our home, why would we leave? Why should we?_ And the answer to that question is the same answer you would get if you asked why we hid. Secrecy."

Harry waited for the low murmur of voices to die down before he continued. 

"The muggles have advanced to a point where they will in fact eventually find us. Recent developments have given us possibly a few more decades before it becomes an unsolvable problem, but the fact is that they _will_ discover us one day, and when they do, the first thing they will want to do is figure out how to steal magic from us. The thing is, with the way their knowledge and technology keeps expanding and improving at an increasingly fast exponential rate, by the time they're able to find us, they may also be able to do that. They're already investigating the human genome--the very building blocks of life, the instructions written into each human cell that guides how you grow and develop and what features you have. They've been studying blood and body chemistry for years. They're currently making detailed studies of the brain. If the secret of how we have and are able to use magic are hidden in any of those places, by the time they're able to find us--the point where we actually can't hide from them anymore, they will likely be able to find those secrets and utilize them for their own gain…and most likely at the expense of those of us who were born with those abilities. CALM DOWN. Like I said, we've bought ourselves a few more decades of time, but the fact is that it will one day be a problem we can no longer ignore. Before it gets to that point, we need to be able to leave and find ourselves a home of our own." 

Dean looked over the audience and saw several of the Ravenclaws were waving their hands like they were in class. 

"Please hold any questions for now. A member of each of our research departments will be doing a separate presentation to show you what we've done, what we want to do, what we think we might need to do in the future. At the end of each presentation there will be a short time where you will be allowed to ask questions. When you do, please keep them brief and to the point. We have a lot to get through today, not just the presentations, but also the tour of the facilities, so keep that in mind during the various Q and A sections." 

Harry nodded when he saw everyone seemed to agree. 

"Alright then, without further ado, the first up will be Tom Riddle of Slytherin. He has been overseeing our Environments group. I'll let him tell you what that's all about." 

The presentations, which they'd tried to keep fairly short-enough to give a thorough overview of what all they'd been doing in each department without keeping everyone there until dinnertime, lasted for about an hour. The photos Colin had taken of everyone and the projects over the course of the year helped immensely with that. When the last of the questions was finished, everyone was directed to Remus at his table, to sign a contract and be given a PDA, and then were directed down the line to take the pinky promise. As the last students were making their way down the line, Harry called for everyone's attention.

"Alright, everyone, now that you have some idea of what all we've been doing, we're going to take you on a tour of the facilities. They've actually changed quite a bit from the rooms we were first using. As the project kept expanding we found ourselves needing more room…and now with all of you coming onboard, we realized we were going to need to completely upgrade our facilities. So, without further ado, if you would all follow us, we'll head to the Garden, which is our little nickname for R & D, since the first room we used had a tiny garden that opened off of it. Sadly, the new project rooms don't, but we've grown used to the name, so you'll just have to live with it. Alright, follow along." 

Harry and the others on the stage started towards a large cabinet that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the stage. One by one they got in and closed the door, when the door was opened again they were gone. The students from the audience were directed to form a line, and one by one they vanished as well.

"Can you believe all this?" Seamus whispered as they waited for their own turn to go in the cabinet.

"No…it's cool though. You think any of them are working on light sabers? That would be brilliant!" 

"Oooh! Ray guns!"

"Photon torpedos!"

"This is so much better than anything we came up with." Michael Corner agreed from behind them. "You think there's any planets of alien amazons hungry for the attentions of a man? That would be brilliant." 

 

When their time came to step through they simply closed the door and opened it on another large room. There were tables set up down the center, tall desks and tables set up around the walls, interspersed with cabinets that were mostly empty as far as they could see.  
"Are we all here? Okay, good. This here is part of the rooms where the philosopher's stone was hidden first year. If you'll all look up you'll see a trap door. When we realized we needed more space, Ron and I thought _'hey, those were some pretty big rooms, they'd actually be perfect for our needs'_ so we repurposed these rooms for our use. Also, for the record, this is not a "secret clubhouse", it is the R  & D department for a corporation, namely the Explorer's Club Inc., and it's not a secret either, not really. The staff actually knows about it. Professor Lupin" here Harry gestured to the DADA teacher, who waved and smiled "who is technically the head of R & D, is our liaison. As they know we're down here doing something we're hoping to get patents on, they've allowed the secrecy. So, they know we're doing something but not actually what. Sirius Black, my godfather is the CEO. I would have been, but as I was a second year when all this started, it didn't seem like it would really fly. It worked out alright. He was looking for something to do, and I didn't have to worry about the paperwork. The recycling project I'm sure most of you have heard of by now, the ones being run by Sirius, not the ones the Ministry is doing, are actually part of this corporation as well. That's pretty much funding this part, and then later the asteroid mining will be funding the main space program. Anyway, moving on…"

 

Harry led them through room after room, with each group head taking over to explain which working group's facilities they were in, what they did there, pointing out some of the ongoing projects. The room they started in was the new Biosphere research room and right next door and loosely connected to it was Tom's work on suits and ship interiors to withstand extreme environments. Those there would be looking into understanding the biosphere so they could terraform planets at some point in the future. A lot of them seemed freaked out by the action figures trapped in snow and fire and high winds that stood in tanks along the walls, and seemed happy enough to see the next spot. Since the mining group was on hold until the outer space simulation room could be built for further testing of their equipment, their stuff was now being held by the enchanters group, who were making and designing equipment to be used by the other groups. Their room was mostly lots of big long tables and cabinets full of raw materials, as well as diagrams and drawings tacked to the walls to be used as guides in future endeavors. The art and design group, which was new, had room for drawing, for painting, and for developing and storing pictures. Those two would be working as a unit as well, with the mining group as a sort of sub-unit. Last but not least was the Communications group, who led a short class on how to use their new PDA's.   
There was also a training room, with a padded floor and walls, which held targets at one end, and a rack of various training weapons, and heavy bags for punching.

"What is this?"

"We're all learning sword fighting, hand to hand combat and archery when we can find the time. It's a good way to relax and keep in shape, work off some tension when you hit a road block in your project, that sort of thing. This room is last so people aren't accidentally getting shot while trying to go from one room to another. Alright, if you'll follow me one last time, you can see the lounge-slash-department heads conference room. It's actually the original Garden. We had the door attached here so we didn't have to leave it altogether." 

Harry led them back through till they arrived at the art department and led them through a door most of them hadn't really taken note of the first time through. They stepped into a very colorful room with a bunch of space-themed murals on the walls. There were a couple of tables and chairs scattered around the room and book cases along the walls. A kitchen could be seen through the doorway. Another doorway showed couches and chairs, as well as the open door to a bathroom. The last door said "conference room".

"There's a locker room with bathrooms--two sided, there's room for girls and boys at either end, off the training room, the bathroom here and one more at the other end in the environments room. As you can see there's places in here to relax a bit, grab a snack, a selection of books to read, and a little garden off the kitchen as well. We ask that if you make a mess you clean it up before you go, that if you have a snack, you take only your share and don't get greedy. If you read a book or borrow it, that you bring it back and don't ruin it…common sense things. Let's keep the place nice for everyone. If you'll all follow me" 

Harry led them into the conference room. 

"There are more cabinets in here. They lead to the four corners of the castle. The idea was to cut down on our travel time, and also to keep people from following us" he glanced at Pansy's gang meaningfully. "They're color coded, obviously, and each one lets out into a shielded room near the house its color belongs to. Do try to be aware of leading anyone to them, as we don't want people wandering around in here when we're not here for obvious reasons. They've been set up to bar unauthorized passengers, but someone clever can always stymie security if they're determined enough. If you'll line up in front of your house color, Tom will be keying each of you to them, which will hopefully cut down on unauthorized access. The lunch bell should be ringing…" RRRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGG "right now, apparently. We'll regroup after lunch, each of you can get a chance to look around your new departments more fully and start catching up on what each department has already done. While I know you're all probably eager to talk about things, do remember your oaths and contract." Harry warned.

"Alright, if the first four could step inside. Wait until you hear a ding to open the door. Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, I'm afraid you'll have to walk back down to get to lunch." Tom called.

Bit by bit the crowd cleared out, until all that was left was the original group. They waited a bit and took the Hufflepuff cabinet. None of them felt like walking down all those stairs.

 

A rather disgruntled Ginny found Hermione reading in the common room later.

"What happened to your stupid study group?"

"We studied. I don't know what's going on with any of them though. They all seemed kind of distracted all through it. We were only at it for an hour, but they all started getting antsy and said they had to go back to Ravenclaw for a thing they had to do. Lavender and Parvati are nowhere to be seen. I've no idea where any of the boys are, so I came back here to read and finish up my homework."

"You're usually already done by the time the weekend rolls around. Lately, anyway."

Hermione scowled and looked rather bitter. Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick both gave me an 'A' on my last homework, can you believe it!"

"They did? Why?"

"They said I went over the page limit and spent too long talking about things they didn't ask for. They both told me at the end of last term that if I didn't start staying within the limits set that they would mark me down."

"And you didn't listen?"

"Well, there was so much left to say!"

"And now you're stuck with an 'A'."

"They said if I re-did it within guidelines they would re-grade it. I haven't gotten my first paper back from Sprout or any of the others yet. I'm half-afraid I'll have to re-do some of those as well." 

Hermione sighed bitterly, then focused on the younger girl. 

"Why are you here anyway? I thought you were going to be exploring broom closets with Dean?"

"I did. One of them anyway. He said he needed to go do something. Can you believe it? What does it take to find a boy that's around once in a while? Between practices and class I barely ever see him as is, and when we have a whole day to just spend together he's nowhere to be found!"

"Well, like you said, you have practices. You can't really begrudge him time to do his own thing as well once in a while, right?" 

"I can if it means he's gonna be gone all day! Seriously! We were in that broom closet for about twenty minutes and he ran off!" 

"Maybe you got him worked up and he left before he embarrassed himself?"

"He could have walked it off--with me! We could have come back here and talked about quidditch or something!"

"I think he still prefers football, to be honest." 

"Bah! He told me about that game. I don't see what's so interesting. There aren't any brooms involved at all!"

"It's quite big in the muggle world." 

"Maybe that's part of the problem. Stupid Michael Corner was a halfblood, Dean's a muggleborn. Maybe I should find a pureblood. There's something to be said for shared culture. Plus I bet a pureblood boy wouldn't run off to join a cult and leave me hanging." 

"Your brother and Neville are both purebloods." Hermione sighed.

"Damn." Ginny cursed.

 

Neville smiled when Hannah approached, though it dimmed when he realized she seemed upset.

"Hannah?"

"Neville…I'm flattered that you wanted me to be a part of all this but…I think you picked the wrong person. I don’t know how to terraform a planet or build space ships or make little Kom-pee-ooters like the others did and…"

"Hannah…"

"…and it's a lot of pressure, I mean, what if I mess up and everyone dies and…"

"HANNAH." Neville repeated firmly. "I don't know how to terraform planets either."

"But…"

"That's kind of the point. That's why we brought in so many new people. We need to learn everything that goes into a successful biosphere. I kind of figure as we're learning, we'll all have to start specializing…I mean, yeah, plants and animals is a good starting point, but you figure there's land animals, birds, aquatic animals, and for plants, well, there's lowland plants, desert plants, aquatic plants, alpine plants…and that's not even getting into water systems and air quality, and bacteria, and bugs! Gosh, there's all kinds of bugs that are necessary for soil and that get eaten by all kinds of small animals and we need to know what they are and how many and what order they need to be added, and where all they can find a successful niche and… It's a lot of stuff. I'm gonna be learning, same as you. In fact, everyone, gather around."

Once everyone was gathered closer--though most of them had already been listening in, Neville continued.

"I thought we'd made it clear earlier--most of what we're going to be doing for the foreseeable future is learning stuff. That includes me and Millicent, and even Tom. The uni in a globe we mentioned? Yeah, Tom's been recording classes-still is, actually. We in biospheres are going to start off in basic biology classes and then half of us will be doing botany--which is what muggles call herbology…"

"…And the rest will branch out to zoology, which is what they call…well, I guess it would be care of mundane creatures…after that, I suppose everyone will start specializing further--funguses, small animals, large, trees and shrubs, grasses, birds, fish…etc., etc. It will take a while, of course, we're all still in magic school, so we'll have to fit the muggle classes in around all that." Millicent concluded.

"That sucks!" Zacharias Smith objected. "We'll be stuck in classes while everyone else is doing cool stuff!"

"Nope, everyone will be taking classes and doing smaller projects, just like we will. Professor Lupin and Sirius have been trying to learn what they need to build a space ship, Harry and Ron have been learning all about mining and smelting and processing ores and all kinds of stuff. Lee and all them have been and will continue to take computer classes. The enchanters are doing engineering and materials science and other stuff…even the art department is going to be getting classes, though they're not from MIT, they're getting classes from Oxford University's school of fine arts." Millicent disagreed. 

"So you see, we're all going to be busy learning stuff. I figure we can study Hogwarts grounds while we're at it--see what all we can find out about the local environment and what all goes into it. I guess at some point, one or more of us will have to try to do the same in the desert, or the jungle or what have you…I guess the arctic at some point. Yeah, we're gonna be busy." Neville added.

"You make it sound like it might be years before we're able to do anything useful!" Mandy Brocklehurst complained.

"It might be. That doesn't mean we won't be doing useful stuff in the meantime at all. I had this idea about vertical farming… I was thinking, what if the whole terraforming thing takes a long time, even with magic? We might have to live in domed cities or something until everything takes hold, and what would we do for food? We don't want to take up all the space available with farms… It could be something to put in the ship too, when we eventually build one. Rather than stuffing holds full of preserved food, we could grow some fresh, right on the ship!" Neville said with great enthusiasm.

"And for us animal folks, I was thinking about us trying out a miniaturized animal pen thing. We'll need to see how small we can make them, how much food they eat, if it gets them sick or anything, or if they develop problems when they're returned to full size… It would be kind of hard to transport say, a bunch of elephants, if they were full size. Not only would they take up a lot of room, we'd need someplace to store the tons of shit they'd produce, and we'd have to have enough food to keep them healthy for the whole ride…. You see where I'm going with this? We might find that letting them walk around miniature is a bad idea, and might have to turn them all in to small toys for transport or something… I think I read somewhere that a hundred and fifty couples is what's needed for a healthy, stable population. That was for humans, but I can't imagine the numbers will be too much different for animals or bugs, right? That's a lot of creatures to be hauling through space, so we need to know how we can best do it, on top of learning which ones we need and in what order. That'll be our project." Millicent added.

"In fact…since we're all here and all, let's get started right now. If everyone would get a notebook from the cabinet there and a quill and take a seat we can get started."

While everyone was moving around to do just that, Millicent went to a locked cabinet and pulled out a small box, about the size of a cigar box and withdrew a marble sized orb with a gold number one on it.

"What's that?" Zacharias wondered.

"This is our first class. Biology 101. Get ready…it's a little intimidating at first." Millie warned as she set the thing in the center of the table and activated it. 

A room seemed to form around them, complete with teacher up front with a bunch of black boards behind him. The kids looked around and gasped at the number of risers behind them, filled with students.

"There's so many muggles!"

"Yep, and the classes are all like that. Hopefully this bunch asks good questions. It's kind of a drawback of this whole thing. It's all just a recording, so you can't ask the teacher questions, you have to hope one of the muggle students does it for you." 

"Shh! I think it's starting!" Justin hissed.

 

Harry looked at Hermione uncertainly. Her knuckles were white around the edges of the Quibbler she was reading and her eyes were blazing. Ron and Neville were both reading over her shoulder, but they didn't seem upset like she did. She finished reading before the boys did. She handed off the paper to Ron, so Neville went and sat on his other side so he could keep reading as well.

"Hermione?"

"You read a children's story and solved a thousand-year old murder mystery, completed a quest most thought was a fantasy and freed thousands of souls from captivity." 

"Uh…yeah?" 

Hermione made a strangled sound deep in her throat, and for a moment she looked like she really wanted to kill him.

"I had help. I mean, Tom was there. Dumbledore too. I don't know what you're…"

"You read a children's story!"

"Yeah, and? It was based on real events, even if most people didn't really believe that anymore."

"How did you even figure that out? It's ridiculous!"

"I had facts that most people didn't."

"Like WHAT?"

"Tom and I are the descendants of two of the three Peverell brothers. I had the cloak, he had the stone. He doesn't anymore. His mum took it back with her to put in the All-father's vault. Mortals aren't really supposed to just be bringing the dead back from their rest willy-nilly. He's still kind of bitter about it." he mused. "Plus the mummies."

"Mummies? What do they…" Hermione's mind raced as she put together the pieces. "They did the same thing."

"Plus some extra stuff while trying to stave off the downsides." Harry nodded. "There was also You-Know-Who."

"Him? What does… Him too? How did you know? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I was just happy it was over…plus I was a bit wary of how folks would react if they realized I was one of the things anchoring him. It's all been taken care of, I'm not anymore, but, well, folks don't always react rationally to things that scare them."

"You? But… Your scar?"

Harry nodded and pulled aside his fringe. The scar was still visible, but it was now just a faint, silvery line where once it had been red and swollen, looking more like a wound freshly inflicted than one a decade old.

"How did…?"

"Loki. He knew there was something wrong with it, so he started investigating. The real clue came from Kreacher though."

"Kreacher?"

"The Black family house elf. You-know-who borrowed him to test some defenses years ago. Regulus, Sirius' little brother, got worried when he never came back and called for him. When he arrived he was very sick, but Regulus nursed him back to health and then questioned him about what happened. He did some research of his own and realized what he'd done. He had Kreacher take him back there. The thing was hidden in a large cup full of poison. The only way to get to the thing was to drink it all. Regulus drank the poison and gave the thing to Kreacher and told him to escape, destroy it, and tell no one in the family. Kreacher wasn't able to, and the thing drove both he and Sirius and Regulus' mum nuts while it was there in the house. Kreacher told Loki the story since he wasn't part of the family when he asked about it. Once he realized what he'd done he was able to fix it. Had it been left to fester, I likely would have had to have been killed to rid the world of him. And to think…you wanted to break up my happy home." 

Hermione ignored his statement. "Why did you never say anything? Don't you think I had a right to know it was over?"

"Been lying awake sleepless, night after night, worrying about You-know-who?"

"Of course not, don't be ridiculous!"

"Then what's the problem? You weren't worried about it, you were focused on other things. As far as the general populace is aware, he's already been dead for a decade at this point. No real point stirring up that can of worms. And finally, lest you forget, we weren't exactly on speaking terms when all this went down." 

 

Hermione subsided into rather sullen silence after that, but it continued to weigh on her mind for the rest of the day. Bits and pieces of past conversations drifted through her mind, along with all the astonishing revelations from the Quibbler--she grabbed a copy left behind when breakfast was over and re-read the articles more carefully, and then brooded on all of it. The thing that kept coming back to her again and again was to wonder if she'd been chosen to be the next bearer of the wand. She knew her mind had been messed with, though most days she tried to avoid thinking too much about it. Her desire to be Dumbledore when she grew up, her determination to prove herself, her utter certainty that the wizards were contemptible children who needed her to rule them-- "…you talk like you're not one of us" Her pride in being muggleborn--the certainty she'd felt that it made her special, better than ordinary wizards who simply inherited magic. She'd actually for a moment felt rather resentful at the idea she might have inherited magic genes as well. 

There were several uncomfortable parallels between her and the horrid, rotted thing in Azkaban. Was she being shaped to be the next vessel, the carrier of the wand, intended to continue shaping society the way that thing wanted it? Part of her greatly feared the answer was yes. The worst part was, even knowing that, there was still a large part of her that felt like that. It made her shudder in revulsion to think it, but that horrid, rotted thing had been in her head, had twisted her to its liking. Would she have been the next dark lord…or would she, like Dumbledore, have set the next one on his path? She greatly feared the answer was yes, however it had fallen out. If she was right, she, and society at large, had been spared a terrible fate by it being destroyed.

All of that was bad enough--the rest of the article she couldn't even begin to wrap her mind around. The Queen of Hel, who just happened to be Loki's daughter, a couple of Valkyries--and oh, yeah, they were Harry and Tom's mothers--thousands of lost souls reclaimed. It sounded like the worst sort of fantasy. _"Don't even get me started on the giant serpent that's supposedly another of Loki's kids. Or that Loki is their mother, not their father."_

The worst part of all of it was that most of the school population, while they gasped and chattered about all of it, didn't seem overly phased by any of it. You'd think it was just another ordinary day. Wizards! They were enough to drive a person batty!

 

Time seemed to fly by, even faster than usual. The weather remained cold, blustery and miserable, but that didn't stop anyone from enjoying the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw game. Ginny had something to prove this time, and flew into battle with a fierce glare upon her face. The whole team was in fine form, and though Ginny, due to her lightness and small size, had a tough time of things in the blustery winds, she managed to pull out a win for Gryffindor in the final moments of what had been a rather (surprisingly) brutal game. Gryffindor had a party to celebrate, and Ginny seemed to be in her element at the center of the crowd, accepting accolades. 

As February continued, another snowfall coated the landscape, and Hagrid could be seen tromping across the grounds, clearing pathways for the students to get to the greenhouses and CoMC class, as well as clearing the road down to Hogsmeade so the carriages could carry the students that weekend. 

"Already mid-February. This term is flying." Seamus mused.

"I know what you mean. I think it's just because we're all so busy all the time, and never seem to have enough time to do everything we want to." Dean agreed.

"Any of you have a date for this Hogsmeade weekend?"

"Nope. You?"

"Uh, yeah. Hannah said she had fun last time. She agreed to go with me again."

"You go, Nev."

"How about you, Ron?"

Ron's ears pinked, and he very obviously didn't look Hermione's way. "Nah. Bachelor day, right Harry?"

"Sure thing, Ron." 

"Hey, did you hear anything more about Loki's daughter?"

"Still nothing definite. I kind of hope she does show. Hagrid's been asking about her."

"He has?"

"Yeah. When he realized how tall she was he got real eager. It's kind of funny to think it, but as she's only seven foot tall, she's going to look like a tiny, delicate flower next to him, even though she's quite imposing. I told him I'd send word if I saw her so he could come down to meet her, but truthfully she might wait till there's no students there. I got the feeling she feels sort of awkward around all us 'tiny folks'." 

"Hey, Hermione, are you coming with us or those Ravenclaws?"

"I thought I'd come with both of you, if that's alright?" 

"The more the merrier" Ron said happily. Harry just shrugged, but she'd take what she could get. Their feud from before never really was resolved, and she was tired of the tension between them. 

Colin trotted up to Harry as they rose to leave and sheepishly handed him a list and a small bag of gold. Harry just grinned ruefully and tucked it away. 

"What was that all about?"

"I seem to be the designated candy shopper for the first and second years. I hope you both don't mind helping me gather everything. If it's anything like last time I'll be at it all day if left to my own devices." 

"We'd be happy to." Hermione replied, before Ron could complain about the 'midgets'. 

 

The ride down to the village was awkward at first. The trio had spent so little time as a trio over the last year and a half, that the distance could be felt like a physical chasm between them. After the initial stilted start, conversation began to flow freely. To Harry and Ron's surprise and relief she didn't ask anything about the Garden or what they'd been up to, instead she spent a lot of time complaining about having to do perfectly good homework over just because she'd gone a 'tiny bit over the limit', and then complaining about how her parents were unsympathetic to her plight and told her it was the sign of a good writer to be able to get to the point quickly and concisely say just what they wanted to say. 

She also asked a lot of questions about Loki's daughter, who she seemed to have decided was a necromancer or something. She quite pointedly ignored Jormungand, the giant serpent. Neither Jormungand the world serpent nor Hela queen of the dead fit with Hermione's world view, so she was determined to find another explanation for both of them. Harry was relieved when the carriage stopped and let them out into the village. The girl could talk.

 

"First stop candy. I'd like to get it out of the way and the kiddies are waiting." 

Once Hedwig had been sent off with the kids' order, and their own purchases were securely packed away in Ron and Harry's expanded pockets, the trio spent a leisurely day wandering the village, dodging all the amorous couples that seemed to be everywhere, and refilling their supplies. They were just debating whether to get some lunch when Harry spotted a small commotion down the street. A glance was all that was needed to see what caused it.

"HELA!" Harry called to the statuesque woman, waving his arm so she would see him. 

"Hagrid just went into the Hogshead a little while ago." Ron whispered. 

"Excellent." Harry chortled before hurrying to meet her. 

"Greetings, brother. I understand this is a Midgardian holiday? May your celebration be enjoyable."

"Not till Monday, and as it celebrates romantic love it's not quite my time yet, but thank you, sister."

Hela nodded her head regally and idly glanced around, though she seemed to be trying to be nonchalant about it.

"This is a quaint village."

"We like it. Did you want to meet Hagrid then?"

"Well…I suppose it would not hurt to meet your friend so long as I am already here."

"Just this way then." 

 

The trio wondered the whole way there how on earth Hela would manage to get inside the pub with her very large, very wide headdress, but she solved the problem by simply walking through the door…and the wall around the door, when she got there.   
Hagrid's eyes widened when she spotted her, and he jumped to his feet, knocking over most of the people seated at the table with him as he did. He winced, smoothed his beard and tried to ignore the groans as he carefully made his way over.

"Hi, Hagrid. Hela, may I present Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of the keys and grounds of Hogwarts. Hagrid, my sister, Hela Lokadottir, Queen of Hel, guardian of the regular dead."

"Unworthy dead."

"That sounds so judgmental." 

"It is my job to be judgmental."

"It's not mine."

"Well… you do have a point. Keeper Hagrid, a pleasure."

Hela held out a gloved hand to Hagrid, who continued to stare at her as though he'd just seen his own personal heaven…or possibly like he'd just gotten brained by a tree-trunk; it was a rather complex expression. He took her gloved hand, dwarfed by his own large ones and pressed a rather saucy kiss to the back of it.

"The pleasure's all mine, yer majesty. If I'm not being too bold, would yer like ter join me fer the Valentine's day special at Madame Puddifoot's tea house?"

Hela considered a moment and then nodded, before taking his arm. 

"That would be acceptable." 

The two of them started for the door. Hela continued to look regal and out of place. Hagrid looked rather dazed; as though he simply couldn't fathom his good luck. The crowd watched the whole meeting in bemused interest, and shook their heads when the two of them simply walked through the wall and door together. 

"Blimey!" one fellow muttered as they disappeared. "Kin ye imagine their kids?"

"I bet they'll be adorable." Harry warned.

"A bunch of sweet lil angels, I'm sure." the man agreed hurriedly.

 

Hermione drug them to a booth at the back of the Three Broomsticks once they'd seen Hela and Hagrid off and put up some silencing wards so they could speak in peace. 

"While I suppose I'm happy for them…they seem a bit of an odd couple, don't you think?"

"Hagrid loves his job, and he has his pets, and his hobbies…but I'm sure he hasn't had much chance to date given he's so much bigger than everyone he meets. Hela has her job, and she's got a few pets that Hagrid will probably love, but I've gotten the impression she's been kind of lonely, ruling over the dead like she is. And, even though she's not as big as Hagrid, she's big enough that I think she's had much the same problem finding someone. If things work out, great. If they don't, well, I'm sure they'll at least make a few fond memories before it ends. Either way, Hagrid is my friend, and Hela is sort of my sister. How could I simply stand by and let them both be lonely when a simple introduction might solve both their problems? Anyway, like I was saying before, she grew up for a little while on Asgard before being sent off to be queen of the dead…" 

He gamely ignored the disgruntled scoff Hermione made. 

"They're a warrior culture. From what Loki has said, Hagrid would likely fit right in there. He's a bit boisterous, he likes to drink, he likes telling stories, he likes wrestling trolls, which would cover the whole warrior thing, and he makes pets of dragons and other dangerous things, so no one would ever doubt his bravery. Even though she didn't spend long there in the greater scheme of things, she kind of imprinted that as her ideal, and has been looking for someone that fits it. That he's kind and honest and taller than her is probably just a bonus."

"I suppose." Hermione sighed. "So…how are both of you doing in school? Keeping up with your homework? You know, I've been thinking about it, and you really should start joining me for study sessions again. I can't bear to think of how your grades must be suffering for the lack. I think a good hour a night, just to go over the stuff we've just covered and to let me proof your homework. And then a couple of hours on the weekend to cover it all again and make sure it stuck…"

"Hermione." Harry interrupted tiredly. "I don't have the temperament to just sit there and study the same stuff over and over…and honestly, I never really needed to."

"HA! Your grades say otherwise." 

 

Harry sighed again and rubbed at his face. Even a year and a half later, he still felt weird about talking about his time with the Dursleys. He'd made the best of it while he was there, not that he really had any choice in the matter… and while he'd been desperately unhappy there, he also knew that it could have been much, much worse. He'd gotten smacked around occasionally, but never pummeled insensate. He'd never gotten enough to eat…but he did get to eat occasionally. He'd been kept in a cupboard…but it was warm, and dry, and was more than some people had, even so. He'd had to wear hand-me-downs that didn't fit, but he did have clothing. He'd never been molested. When one considered the full range of horrific lives that children sometimes were handed, he'd gotten off relatively lightly. With that said, it had still been a miserable experience, and one he was profoundly grateful he'd been able to get away from. His time there had left its mark on him, and probably always would. Loki had encouraged him to talk about it, so his friends would understand why he'd been so angry when they'd tried to ruin his new guardianship, and so that he himself could better come to terms with it and put it behind him. He knew he was probably right about all of it, but that didn't make actually doing it any easier. He wasn't ready to talk about most of it, but this at least he would try to set the record straight on, or Hermione would keep harping on it till kingdom come. It simply wasn't in her nature to let anything go.

"Look, Hermione, what you don't seem to understand…what you've never understood, is that I didn't grow up like you did, or like Ron did. You were both always certain that you were wanted, and belonged. The Dursleys, and you notice I never refer to them as my family, and I never will, they went to great lengths every single day that I lived with them to make sure I knew I wasn't wanted, I didn't belong, that I was a freak, and a burden and a nuisance that would be better off dead."

Ron and Hermione both paled.

"I'm actually quite intelligent. I always have been. The thing is, Dudley never was. Frankly, none of the Dursleys are intellectual giants. They think they are, but they're not. Now, in Dudley's case, I don't know if it was that his brain doesn't work right, or that he never had to use it. If he wanted something it was immediately given to him. Always. When he was first learning to read and do math, he was struggling with it. The thing was, I wasn't struggling. I did well the first year of school. I picked up reading and writing easily, spelling too. I was always good at maths. When our first report card came home I did a lot better than Dudley. I was at the top of the class, he was at the bottom. Now, most families, one would assume they'd try to find out what the problem was--couldn't he hear the teacher? Could he not see the board? Was he dyslexic? Maybe they'd talk to the teacher, maybe they'd sit with him while he was doing homework and try to see what he was having difficulties with. None of that happened. Dudley was assured that it was my fault he'd done badly, because I'd obviously done something freaky. He was praised to the roof, plied with cakes and candy till he was sick, given a whole bunch of expensive presents…and I was hit with a belt until I was dizzy and couldn't sleep all night because I was in too much pain. I was kept locked in my room for the whole holiday break and not fed. I was let out twice a day to go to the bathroom, at which point I'd try to guzzle down as much water from the faucet as I could stomach, both because I needed it, and to help distract me from how hungry I was. When it was time to go back to school, Vernon grabbed my arm, twisted it and shook me, and warned me there'd be no more 'funny business' or I likely wouldn't survive the summer. After that I was very careful to score slightly below Dudley on every test. I was made to do his homework most nights because he couldn't be bothered, and I knew I'd be punished again if I complained. It made it easier to make sure my grades stayed below his, since I did both. Vernon and Petunia never thought it odd that I scored lower even though I did both papers. They assured Dudley it was because he was special and better than the freak, which was me by the way. To you, good grades means a pat on the head and bragging rights. To me, it's always meant the very real possibility that I wouldn't live to see another school year."

Hermione burst into loud tears; it was probably a good thing she'd put up those privacy wards or likely Madame Rosmerta would be showing him the door right now. Ron immediately flailed and did his inept best to comfort her.

Once Hermione calmed down somewhat, they ended up heading back to the castle, as Hermione's crying jag put a bit of a damper on the whole fun day out away from the castle. Unfortunately, she launched immediately into an interrogation the moment the carriage was underway.

"Why did you never say anything?"

"I did." Harry replied, his voice frosty. "Right around the time Hagrid's hut blew up. As I recall you didn't listen…not that it surprised me much, since no one ever listened except Loki." 

"Before that!"

"I did…teachers, a police officer, a social worker. Nothing ever came of it, and I never saw them again. I eventually stopped bothering. Dumbledore… He admitted he knew he was sending me off for ten years of hell, but it didn't matter really because it was 'for the best'. Once Loki took me in, I believe I told both of you it was a good change, that I was happy, that he wasn't evil or whatever tripe Dumbledore and Mrs. Weasley were spouting…and it didn't matter, because apparently all of you, who don't know the Dursleys from Adam, and didn't know Loki any better, were all authorities on my life."

Hermione started sobbing again. Harry threw up his hands, dug out his broom from one of his pockets and left through the carriage door. Hermione was so stunned she actually stopped crying to stare at the open door in astonishment. Ron leaned out of the carriage to catch the door and re-fasten it, then sat down across from Hermione and just looked at her.

 

"You just can't help yourself, can you? Can't leave well enough alone and just get on with things. I keep telling you cornering him ain't the way. After hearing all that bollocks about the Dursleys it's no wonder. We were all hanging out again, talking…and you just can't stop picking at things." 

"I just want things to go back to how they were!"

"Don't you see though? That's the problem. Maybe it's just because I've been here the whole time, and you were petrified and then worrying about other things…but Harry doesn't want to go back to how things were. I'm sure there's some weird psychology in there somewhere…what? I've been reading about it." he defended himself off Hermione's look of incredulity. 

"He was miserable with those bastard Dursleys, and his cousin was happy. He got here and he got to be Dudley, see? Except he realized that and decided he didn't want to be Dudley, he wants to be Harry, only a Harry that gets to make his own decisions and be happy. When you say you want it to go back that way, all he can think is that he had a crazy guy after him that wanted to kill him, and a headmaster that ruled his life and didn't care it was miserable, and he was a lump that didn't get any say in things, and he was eleven to boot, so he was a dumb kid on top of that and… Don't you see? He's grown past all that, but you keep trying to stuff him back in that little box, only he ain't having it."

"And what am I supposed to do then, oh wise guru?" Hermione said bitterly.

"The same thing I did. Get to know this Harry and work out something new that works for both of you."

Hermione continued to gaze at him as though she'd never seen him before. Ron eventually began growing a bit irritated as well. 

"What? I'm not allowed to have insights and know stuff? I'm not a dumb eleven year old kid that's never been away from home before anymore either. Maybe it's not just Harry you need to rework things with." 

Hermione started to look decidedly sniffly. Ron hit her with a calming charm. She looked at him with betrayed eyes and her lower lip wobbled. He hit her with a second one.

"Stop casting magic on me." 

"Stop crying all the time. Blimey, that would have been the third time in just the last hour! Gonna sob all the moisture right out of yourself and then where will you be?"


	7. Another Year's End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neville remembers something that allows the Garden kids to make some breakthroughs in their research. A brief cameo of Thor and friends. Another school year ends.

"So what's up lately with you and Hermione?"

"I don't know. She's been weird. It's like she reverted to the really abrasive girl we met on the train. She relaxed a lot after hanging out with us for a year. She's no longer the girl who helped me smuggle a dragon. She's not the girl that went with me to stop You-Know-Who even though she was terrified out of her wits. It's like she lost that. Unless… that was never her? Her head was messed with at some point. Maybe she wasn't mature for her age, she just seemed like it because we were stupid kids and it was technically an adult that mind-controlled her. It could be that with the controls removed that she actually is still that abrasive little girl we met on the train. She might not have actually had a chance to grow beyond that as herself. I think she's floundering and we didn't realize how badly. She wants things to go back the way they were, but I've grown past that. I guess I just have to wait till she catches up." 

"I guess we were all just so happy to know something had been done to her, that she wasn't just randomly evil that we didn't really think about what that meant."

"Exactly. I tried to explain some stuff to her and then she was just crying and crying and then she got all bossy and interrogative…and then she just kind of closed up and now I don't know what's going on with her. Anthony and them said she wants to study all the time and she's been spending most of her time in the library, or bugging the teachers for extra credit assignments." 

"She always has to go above and beyond."

"Yeah. She can't seem to help it. At least she's not stopped eating and sleeping this time, though I think it's a struggle for her not to fall back into those bad patterns. It really bothered me how obtuse she was being about Loki, and then she was randomly evil, and then petrified, and then we found out her head was messed with… I just know right now she irritates me more often than not."

"That's rough, man. I guess I'd been hoping she'd get to a point where we could invite her in and it would be fine. All the rest of us are in the Garden, and with her hanging around it means we always have to be careful about what we're saying. It would be simpler if she was one of us."

"It would, but as it stands now I still don't think it's a good idea. And you know what? For all that she's good in class and always got good grades, I'm not sure she'd actually be of any use on any of the projects. She still refuses to believe Loki is Loki, or that Hela is Hela, or that Jormungang even exists. She's so determinedly close minded. I kind of wonder if she'd just dig in her heels and end up halting our progress because she can't deal. You know what? I don't want to talk about this anymore. How's your biosphere group doing?"

"Good. We've all been busy taking classes. That's mostly what we've been doing. We've also been experimenting with a vertical farming thing. We've been planning to eventually try making small ecosystems and see if we can make them self-sustaining…though when we'll actually get to that part is anyone's guess."

"I think the muggles tried that but it failed. It was called the Biosphere 2 or something like that. I'll ask Andi…Professor Tonks…if there's stuff about it somewhere that we can access. It might help give you a baseline to work off. Maybe you can figure out what went wrong."

"That would be helpful. I hope she can find something."

"We're all so busy all the time, but it still sometimes feels like we're not getting any closer to our goal. Remus has been mostly busy with classes, so he hasn't had a lot of time to really work on designing a ship. Sirius either. He's been mostly tied up with the corporation and overseeing the landfills. It would be so much easier if there were, like, advanced alien space ship wrecks we could study, but Loki said there aren't any on earth."

"Well…there's ones that aren't wrecked off earth, right? Why don't we just study those?"

Harry stared at Neville a moment and smacked himself in the forehead. 

"Duh! God! I'm such an idiot! We'll have to get Tom to whip up a spaceport in a globe so we can actually get close enough to study the ships--the galaxy in a globe lets you study the planets, stars, asteroids etc., but not so much the folks or stuff on the planets. Thanks, Nev. That'll be a huge help. I guess we've all been pulled in so many directions we're starting to miss the obvious stuff. Duh. We even knew there were aliens and stuff out there and never once thought 'hey, we should study their ships and get some tips'. Ron and I did a survey of the asteroid field, and we took everyone to see Heimdall a few times--it still irritates me that we can't get closer to Asgard than that. We looked for earth-like planets too. We're idiots." 

"Well, like you said, you were focused on the mining stuff. Sirius and Remus were supposed to be focused on the ship, so really, they should have thought of it." 

"You know…I'm not actually certain we ever told either of them. I mean, I'm sure I meant to…but I can't actually remember doing it. Oh well. Let me go tell Tom your idea, and then I should probably go warn Lee and them that we're going to be doing this. I don't know how much space the scans take up on our servers, but I imagine it's a lot. They might need to make us a new, dedicated server just for ship scans if it's too much. They'll probably want to be doing their own scans as well. If we're going to snoop at their ship tech, we might as well snoop at their communications and information storage tech as well. I'll send a message to Loki. He's not supposed to interfere, but surely he can tell us where a space port is we can study, right?"

"I can go tell Tom for you if you want to talk to Lee." 

"That should work. Best get to it then. The term is already half over and we'll all be too busy during revision week and exam week to do much. We need to get on this." 

 

"Hey Lee, good all of you are here. We've got a new project for you." Harry said cheerfully as he sauntered into the room.

"Another one? We're kind of…"

"It's sort of more of the same. Let me explain."

 

Over the next few days and weeks the communications group and the enchanters group all kicked suddenly into high gear and started working on things.   
Time continued on. Gryffindor pulled out another win in their last quidditch game of the season, but they were short on points--Ginny had ended up with no choice but to grab the snitch or see the win go to the other team--and so Slytherin became that year's quidditch champions, much to Gryffindor's dismay. There was much gloom and despair in Gryffindor house, except among those who were part of the Garden. They headed down to get some work in so they could avoid the morose atmosphere. 

The communications group unveiled their new dedicated scanning servers, and were proud to announce they'd made a breakthrough and could now save nearly three times as much information on each one as they could on the original servers. Everyone was duly impressed and so they had an impromptu party to celebrate their success. 

The enchanters unveiled the dedicated high-capacity scanners for the ship project; their tiny PDAs weren't going to quite cut it. They simply looked like long poles with a handle in the center to carry it with. A person standing on either side of a ship with one could scan the whole thing in roughly five minutes, or so they hoped, based on estimates they made of how big the average ship was likely to be. There was a smaller set of the new scanners for the communications group to use to try to pin down the information superstructure and learn from it. 

Tom had to be reminded about the spaceport in a globe as he'd gotten distracted by a new project he was working on, but as he'd done making such things so many times by now it was a matter of only another day until it was ready. When everyone came to pick it up so they could do some scans before revision and exam weeks got there, they discovered there was now an artificial tree-like structure that filled the room, or at least the ceiling and part of the walls with its winding tendrils and leaves.

"Air system for the ship when we make it. Our ship, not the action figure one. They don't breathe, so I won't be able to get proper readings from it. I installed it here so it could be tested. It works much like a real tree does; it takes our waste air and gives us back oxygenated air. They're also supposed to filter out anything else that we shouldn't be breathing and store it for use or study later. We'll see how it goes. I was thinking of removing all the air from these rooms so I could get a proper test under working conditions, but everyone else in the department got upset for some reason. Don't they understand I can't test it properly unless we only have our own recycled air to breathe?" 

"Maybe try it a different way once you've seen how it holds up right now, yeah?" Harry suggested.

"Whatever. Now go away. I'm busy."

"Don't you want to see the space port?"

"I've already seen it. I made the globe, remember?"

"Suit yourself.

 

Nearly everyone from the Garden was waiting impatiently in the large training room, some clutching scanners, others just looking curious and excited.

"Okay, kids, who's ready to see some space ships?"

"I AM!" everyone bellowed cheerfully. 

"Let's get this party started then. Everyone form up and sit in a large circle." 

While everyone was doing that, Harry took the spaceport in a globe and set it in the middle of the room. Once everyone was settled he activated it, leaving everyone dizzy for a moment as the world wobbled around them as it was being filled by the view of a spaceport far, far away.

"Whoa!" Justin said faintly.

"Look at everything." Hannah added, sounding awed.

"It's a rather…grungy place, isn't it?" Pansy said, wrinkling her nose.

"Oi! That green guy just shot that purple guy!" Ron pointed.

"Are those their Aurors? They're rather grungy too…" Draco said with distaste.

"From the little I know of this place it's actually built inside the cranium of a Celestial, which is a really big-ass alien. There's a bunch of scientific outposts from a bunch of different species that are here studying both the place and the edge of known space, which is where it's located. What's left of the cerebral cortex of this alien we're inside forms a tunnel of sorts that lets you travel from here to anywhere in known space…we should try to get readings on that while we're here. Because it forms such a useful function, a lot of thieves, smugglers, brigands and the like tend to end up here. Chances are the 'cops' are just the strongest group of space scum currently running the port." Harry explained.

The universe is so much more complex"  
"And crowded than we ever imagined." the twins noted.

"I'm still stuck on we're inside something's skull. This place is huge!" Michael Corner muttered.

"Yeah. Scary, isn't it?" Morag chimed in.

"Terrifying." Anthony remarked, sounding quite serious.

"There's a lot of ships here. How do we know which one to scan? Given the size of them we might have space for a scan of one…and truthfully, even that might be pushing it. We can't afford to choose badly." Theo noted.

"Well… I guess we should look around first. Look for one that seems to be in relatively good condition. Watch the crowds and see if there's one that people do a double take at or point out to their friends. Probe with your wands first? I don't know. We'll figure something out." Millicent suggested.

"Alright, kiddies, while you're doing that, we're going to see if we can find the control booth or what have you for this place so we can get a look at their computers." Lee announced. 

"Once we're done there we should all take a peek at some of the scientific outposts and see what's there." Kendall agreed. "I hope we have space for everything…and that we can actually understand whatever our readings bring back."

"Don't forget to scan that cerebral cortex wormhole thing!" Bernard added. "In fact, I'll do that. We'll get more if we spread out some."

"What should the rest of us do?" Cedric wondered.

"There's a market here too. If the rest of you want to go there and spread out and see what kind of goods are being sold, that kind of thing, that would probably be of great benefit." Harry spoke up. "In fact, see if you can scan anything interesting--plants or animals--with your PDAs. We could learn a lot about what's out there with information like that." 

"Oh, sure. We can do that." Susan Bones nodded.

"While we're doing all that, what are you going to be doing?" Zacharias wondered.

"Checking out the mining operation."

"Should have guessed." 

"I wish we could understand what everyone was saying." Daphne said with some dismay.

"They're all speaking different languages." Luna noted.

"Well, yeah, that's what I meant."

"No. They're speaking different languages than is coming out. Watch." Luna pointed.

"They must have something on them to act as a translator." Harry mused as he started scanning the two they all were watching. 

"Yeah, right there. In their neck. They've got something under the skin there and it’s the same in both of them. Harry scanned both their necks with his PDA. "Hopefully we'll be able to decipher the thing before we venture out into space."

"Yes. It would be rather sad if we couldn't tell if someone was trying to say hello or trying to rob us."

Harry just laughed. "Alright. Everyone's got their mission. Let's spread out and collect our data so some day we can come here in person…if we actually want to."

"RIGHT!"

 

Harry was dimly aware of the sound of a bell, but he ignored it in favor of exploring the vast mining operation going on at the strange space port they found themselves at. The sheer size of the being whose skull they were in was staggering. There were several largish settlements within it, just in its eyesockets! The mining was slowly clearing out more space as they carted off bits of its calcified brain and blood, but it was slow going and would probably continue for another millennia given the sheer amount of stuff to be gathered. He honestly had trouble wrapping his mind around it. All the people, the space ships, the buildings, the sprawling market and vast museum complex together--they looked like fleas on a very big dog. It was rather humbling, to say the least. 

"Fascinating, isn't it?"

Harry jumped and found Tom standing behind him. They were hovering in mid-air in front of the very tall brain matter, watching tiny people chipping away at pieces of it in small mining ships, while others hung suspended from ropes and did the same. They weren't actually there, so they could do that.

"I thought you weren't coming?"

"It's lunch time and all of you didn't notice."

"Oh. There's a lot to see."

"So there is, but if we keep missing meals the teachers are going to come looking for us. We can pick it up again lat.." BOOM! "er…what was that?"

A thought took both of them to the source of the disturbance. A bunch of furiously angry Hufflepuffs were gathered and cheering on some big armored warriors that were currently beating the unholy hell out of a group of seedy looking characters. A large war hammer went sailing through the air and smashed one of the people in the head, caving it in. The Hufflepuffs grimaced but looked tremendously satisfied, as did the group of small red children who were hiding behind…

"LOKI!" Harry exclaimed.

"That must be Thor and his friends. He did say his brother has been complaining that he wasn't around to go adventuring." Tom said thoughtfully.

"I wonder what's going on?"

"Let's ask."

Another thought brought them level with the angry Hufflepuffs who were still cheering at the carnage.

"Hey. What's going on?"

"Those…scum-sucking, no good dirty sons of hippogriff dung were going to sell those kids!" Susan growled angrily.

"WHAT?!"

"We were wandering the market like you asked and we saw a lot of really creepy people going into one of the shops. We thought they looked like they were up to no good so we followed them." Ernie MacMillan explained.

"They had those kids locked up in cages like they were wild animals or something! All the creeps were leering at them and kept touching them. One of the kids didn't like it and bit the guy trying to fondle him." Justin added, sounding sick. 

"The creep trying to sell them did something to his cage and it shocked him. It must have really hurt, because the kid was crying, but he just bit harder. The guy he bit stabbed him in the eye and killed him." Sally-Anne Perks sniffled. 

"The creeps got into an argument, but we'd already seen enough. We managed to open their cages, but the view wobbled when we did." Hannah added.

"Only scanning spells are really built in to the system." Tom explained.

"So we figured, but we couldn't just do nothing."

"They noticed the cages open while the men were distracted and they all ran for it and scattered. We split up to try to help them escape if we could. That one little girl spotted the lady warrior with them and attached herself to her leg and started babbling." Wayne Hopkins continued. 

"We couldn't understand her, but she did and she was very angry. She explained to the others when they came back to see what was keeping her, and they decided to go kill all of the scumbags. The other kids started creeping out of the woodwork when they saw they were trying to help them. They left Loki with the kids. I think he did something to calm them down. They were all crying and nearly hysterical." Cedric explained.

"Serves them right, the bastards. Those kids are tiny! They're all chubby cheeks and… How could anyone do that? They're like little red humanoid kittens!" Harry asked, shocked.

"They're taking out all the customers too, I hope?" Tom asked.

"Yeah. That one with the caved in head was the creep that killed the little boy." Hannah nodded.

"Good." Tom said, his voice hollow. 

Hannah studied him unobtrusively for a moment. He seemed to be taking this whole event even worse than the rest of them were. She recalled then that in his first life he'd lived in a poor, run down orphanage, before they really had extensive laws protecting children. Most little kids had parents and older siblings to watch over them and keep the creeps away and protect them. An orphan wouldn't have had any of that. Hannah took his hand and gave it a light squeeze. "People who target kids are the worst. They deserve whatever they get." she said quietly. Tom didn't say anything, but he let her keep holding his hand.

The last of the creeps was killed and his ship smashed when he tried to run off into it to escape. The Asgardians, who seemed well pleased with themselves, rejoined Loki, each grabbed one of the children and then wandered off together.

"Well, fun's over. I guess we should be getting to lunch." Emma, another of the fifth years said cheerfully.

"In a moment. There's one more thing we need to scan." Tom murmured distractedly before running after the Asgardians. 

The rest of them, including the communications and enchanters groups who had also come to investigate when they'd heard the loud BOOM, took off after him. They found Tom standing just outside an intricate runic pattern inscribed on the ground which the Asgardians and the children were all standing on. Thor shouted something, and then the air seemed to fill with a loud polyphonic hum.

"Holy shit!"

A coruscating rainbow slammed down into the runic pattern, covering it exactly. The Asgardians and their young charges seemed to meld with it and vanish. They all blinked spots out of their eyes when it suddenly disappeared. Tom looked around at everyone with the scanners expectantly. 

"Tell me you got readings on that."

"Got some. I was too shocked at first."

"Same here, but I got some too." 

"Excellent." 

 

"Thank goodness. That was the last of them." Neville sighed, stretching.

"My poor hands feel like they're gonna fall off." Ron muttered.

"What did all of you get for number 3?" Hermione asked nervously.

"I don't remember. What's it matter now in any case? The exams are over. We get what we get." Seamus shrugged.

"I just hope I did well or I won't be going anywhere this summer. Mum will prolly park me in the kitchen and expect me to study all day. Of course, even if I do well there's no guarantee she'll let me leave. She seems to think none of us should have any good reason to ever leave the house or our property ever. I think that's why Bill and Charlie moved so far away, to be honest."

"Okay… Your mum sounds intense." Dean laughed.

"I thought you wanted to be part of the recycling thing this summer? Surely she'll let you leave for a job, right?" Harry asked.

"I dunno. Dad had to intercede on our behalf when we were in Egypt. He pointed out that we'd already agreed and if she didn't let us go, the goblins would see it as a broken contract and no good would come of it. She wasn't happy about it at all. This time there's no goblins to hide behind."

"Sure there is. Remus forwarded the names of all the students taking part. The stuff we collect is going to be turned over to the goblins to be sold. Just tell your mum that. She'll have to let you go." 

"Yeah? Brilliant." 

"All that recycling business is going to greatly cut in to our summer." Hermione sighed. "My parents rescheduled our vacation to accommodate it. It's for school credit--normal school credit--so they didn't object too much, but they're still going to be irritated at the delay."

"Yeah, it will, but at the end of the two weeks you should have a nice little bundle of galleons to show for it. Myself, I'm kind of curious how much we made already."

"Already? We haven't even started yet!" Dean pointed out.

"We're getting paid?" Hermione asked in interest.

"Yes we are. We're going to split the take from the aluminum cans that have been gathered since last year rather than the stuff from the river because it will take a while for them to clean it all up, sort it and make something useful from it. Well, I should say we'll split the take after the company and the goblins take their share."

"How'd you collect cans if you were here though?" she wanted to know next.

"Easy. I put a spell on the inside of a whole bunch of trash cans that were along public thoroughfares and near to the beach. Any aluminum cans that get tossed in there vanish into our warehouse and land in the contraption Sirius and Remus put together to process the aluminum cans. It lands in a big collector chute, rolls down, gets hit with several cleaning charms to remove any drink residue left behind, or vanish any trash stuffed inside of it, then the cans roll a bit further and the paint is removed from them, separated back into pigments and sent off to separate containers. The cans are then scanned to make sure anything that isn't aluminum has been removed. That part is very important. Normally cans meant for soft drinks can't be recycled by the aerospace industry because the muggles can't remove the paint on them properly, and if it gets melted down the paint leaves weak spots in the aluminum when it's recast, which would be dangerous on something like a plane. Since we can remove it properly we can actually sell the melted down aluminum to the aerospace industry and get a higher price for it than we would otherwise. I have no idea how many cans may have been collected from the few trash cans I did that to, but it's been running for a year and I know they've already sold some of the aluminum, so I must admit I'm kind of curious. It should have been a good haul. I did some big bins behind a bunch of bars as well as the usual bins on the street." 

"What about secrecy?" Hermione demanded, her voice disapproving.

"What about it? People toss stuff in while they're wandering down the street. It's not like they stand there to make sure it lands in, except to see if it bounces off the side or overshoots the basket. I doubt anyone will notice, and if they do they'll easily convince themselves it was a trick of the eye, nothing more. Anyway, it's not like I did it to every trash can in Britain, just a few dozen or so. There'll still be plenty of places for us to gather more from. Next summer we've talked about maybe going dredging part of the ocean--the company, not us. Tom said he found a whole bunch of plastic trapped there where the ocean currents meet. In fact, he said there's so much there that a hundred wizards could probably throw vanishing spells at it for a hundred years and barely make a dent!"

"What? That's crazy!" Neville choked.

"That's disgusting." Dean corrected.

"It's ridiculous, is what it is. If there were that much the muggles would have noticed! They're not stupid!" Hermione objected.

"He said it's piled up there, but the top is still just under the top of the ocean, so they won't have seen it while flying by." 

"If all the currents meet there they might not be able to get to it even if they do know about it. All the currents mixing together would make it dangerous to sail there, and if there's as much garbage there as he says, a hundred boats wouldn't be able to haul it away, and if they could, they'd still have nowhere to put it." Dean pointed out.

"But we can collect it and render it back into petroleum and sell it back to them. It might not be just plastic either. There might be a whole bunch of stuff there." Harry shook his head. "Needless to say though, this discovery hasn't endeared muggles to Tom at all. He can't imagine why anyone would make something they knew wouldn't degrade or disappear over time like natural products do. That it's toxic and harmful to the environment and has been injuring and killing wildlife is just icing on a rancid cake to him." 

"It's not the muggles fault!" Hermione sniffed, gearing up for a defensive rant. 

Harry held a hand up before she could get going. 

"Yes, it is." Harry said seriously. "They knew it didn't degrade and couldn't really be destroyed. It just breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces and it's there forever. They used to sell milk in reusable glass bottles. It cost them money to clean and sterilize them after every use, and they were heavier, you constantly had to worry about breakage. Plastic jugs can break, but it isn't guaranteed like with a glass one. Convenience was a big part of why they started making plastic in such quantities, but mostly it was greed. One-use plastic bottles--cheaper to make, they don't have to worry about sterilizing them so they can be reused--they make more profit on every sale. People used to bring their own basket or what not when they went shopping to hold their groceries. Start supplying cheap plastic bags at the market--if you're out and didn't bring your basket with you because you weren't planning to go shopping, but just remembered the last of your potatoes went bad and you need more for dinner tonight--it's no problem! The shop gives you a bag to carry them in! Sell them to every store on every continent and BOOM! Big money all around. Money. That's what it was all about. It was making them big bucks, so what did they care that the landfills started piling up--just cover it over and start a new one! That one filled up just as fast? Who cares? We're rolling in it. They saw a chance to make big money and didn't care how it would impact later generations, or the world or the animals or the ocean. So many products are made with petroleum too. I think I was told it was like, 6000 different things. The muggles are using it up like it isn't all going to vanish one day. It took millions, if not billions, of years to make all those oil reserves, and they're draining them dry like they're going out of style, again because of greed. Muggles keep trying to research renewable energy sources, but the oil barons keep blocking those initiatives when they can because they want the world to remain dependent on them and their products for as long as possible, because they're all filthy, filthy stinking rich because of it. They don't care if they leave the world a ruin, or if there's nothing but ruined dregs for their grandchildren, because they got theirs and to hell with anyone else." 

"Okay. Off the soapbox." Dean joked.

"Sorry. Tom's quite the orator when he wants to be. He feels very strongly about this sort of thing, and once he starts pointing it out, you can't help but agree with him, because he's right."

"He is not right!"

**_"He is._** There's evidence in laws that were put before various governments. A lot of countries have tried investing in clean, renewable energy. Yeah, at one point they didn't have the know-how to even begin figuring out how to do that, but it's gotten to a point where they could and the oil barons spend millions in bribes to keep it from happening, because they make so damn much money that's pocket change to them. They could have used some of those millions to get in on the ground floor of renewable energy, but apparently spending millions on bribes to get your own way is fine, but using it for research and development isn't. _It is their fault._ It's the fault of the oil barons for being so greedy and callous about the future, it's the fault of public servants that are lining their pockets instead of looking out for the public good, and it's the fault of every yahoo that keeps voting those corrupt officials back into office year after year. If the corrupt officials lost their positions, the next group to take office would think twice about taking bribes themselves. When there's no consequences they end up seeing it as their due, or a perk, a little extra for their retirement. It is their fault, Hermione. They're not stupid, remember? They're not children either. You can't absolve them of all blame for the mess." Harry growled.

"They can't just wave their wands and make messes go away!"

"EXACTLY! Which means they have to worry about consequences, and they haven't been. That's kind of the point I was making." 

"Alright, alright. Enough arguing. Geez. You two…" Dean muttered.

"Yeah. Eat your dinner. I don’t know about everyone else, but I can't eat when people are arguing at the table. I get an upset stomach." Neville interjected.

"Never have dinner with my family." Ron joked. 

Harry and Hermione glared at each other and each began filling their plates. Those around them sighed in relief. 

"I kind of miss the days when we only had to worry about Ron and Hermione bickering." Seamus muttered under his breath.

 

The night before everyone was due to go back home, the kids of the Garden were informed there would be a meeting in the 'big conference room'--namely the stage room where the recruiting presentations had been held. They gathered there, curious as to why they'd been called together.

"Alright, everyone, settle down. As some of you may know, in the past years we often had an end of year meeting on the train as we headed back to London. This time, as there are so many of us, we can't really do that. In order to not miss out on that, we're going to have that meeting now. Now, obviously, with the PDAs, anyone who has had time or inclination to do so has been able to read every departments reports about their ongoing research. Even with that, it's still nice to cap off the school year with a rundown of what all we managed to do during the term. Since Ron and I have mostly just been floating helpers while waiting for the deep space simulation room to be built so we can test our equipment in real-world conditions, I'll speak instead about something equally near and dear to my heart. We managed to get a complete scan of the ship we chose in Knowhere, and what's more, Remus took a look at it and thinks he and Sirius can interpret it into something they can replicate. If they can in fact manage to do that, we may actually manage to get to space before we all graduate! I'm real excited about this as you can probably tell." 

After Harry was done, the rest took turns saying a few words about what they'd been up to. The communications group was the most enthusiastic--they thought they might be able to make substantial improvements to their computer systems once they'd finished going through their scans of Knowhere. The Enchanters group had been looking over the scans of the Bifrost and thought they might be able to make improvements to the standard portkey if they could figure out how to match it more closely to the Bifrost.

"Really? How?" Maureen O' Neil, a sixth year Slytherin wanted to know. Her father worked in the Department of Magical Transportation, so studying magical forms of travel was something of a hobby of hers. 

"I've actually taken a portkey several times, and the tunnel you travel through is a rainbow. I mentioned that to Professor Lupin, and said I wish we had a portkey to study to see if that was just a coincidence. He mentioned it to Sirius, who remembered his family had a permanent portkey that takes you from their house to a cottage they own in Scotland. He took a couple of trips back and forth and did some scans while in the tunnel and sent them to us. I don't think it's a coincidence. I think our ancestors might have made the first portkey by studying the Bifrost or something like it, because it's very close. If we can figure out how to make the resemblance closer, we should be able to travel more easily in space. That's what we're thinking anyway." Theo explained.

A stir of interest went through the crowd at his assertion. It had been an ongoing bone of contention whether portkeys would be enough to transport the ship out to the asteroid field. Anyone who'd actually taken one said you didn't travel as quickly as by apparation, and were more aware of the passage of time. Yes, it was a matter of seconds in most cases, but when one was hoping to travel millions of miles, those seconds would quickly add up--to the point it might take weeks or even months to travel that far. The idea of being in a portkey tunnel for weeks or months wasn't something anyone was too keen to experience. 

Millicent took the stage next and discussed how her group were mostly still taking classes, but were also combing through the transfiguration and charms literature to see what they could find out about long-term effects on animals that were shrunk or transfigured as they didn't want to experiment on animals if they didn't have to. 

"I really, really hope it's safe long-term. While we haven't really gotten into the meat of our project yet, we have been making lists of food chains, and then trying to calculate how much of each animal would be needed to feed another animal for a year, and how many would need to be in the initial herd or flock to maintain a stable population that could repopulate without suffering a colony collapse. The numbers start getting pretty big pretty fast, so we're really going to need an effective way to transport such large numbers long distance."

Neville was next. "We're still bogged down trying to take classes too. We're also reading through the records of Biosphere 2. Muggles tried to make a self-sustaining environment years ago, but it failed. Professor Tonks was able to get us a copy of what was published because her husband knew a guy who was able to get a copy of it all. We think it will be a great help when we're trying to do it ourselves. We just hope we can figure out why it failed… We've also started trying to make a sustainable, low-maintenance vertical farm. We haven't quite worked out all the bugs yet, but we're going to try setting one up this summer that we'll be tending and monitoring. If we can get it to work, Sirius said he'd have the corporation do it large scale and work out whatever bugs are still there. We're real excited about it. If we can get it to work properly we could have fresh produce on the ship. If terraforming takes a long time we could live in dome cities until everything evens out and have plenty of food even if space is limited. Even here on Earth it will be a good thing. If we can start mass-producing our own fruits and vegetables, it will mean more money staying in the magical world. With the loss of so many magical villages, and space being at such a premium in most magical places, the bulk of our food has been coming from the muggle world in recent generations. This not only means a loss to our economy, it also means we're all getting muggle pesticides, herbicides and other stuff in our systems, which is probably not a good thing, I wouldn't think. So, yeah, if we can get it running it should be a benefit to the magical world as a whole. Plus, if we can produce as much food in a relatively small space as I think we can, we could have enough for not only ourselves, but even surplus to sell to our trading partners in other countries, which would be a boon to the magical world as a whole, not just Britain." 

Luna spoke for the art department. She talked briefly about some of the sketches and designs they'd completed and then went off on a tangent about how plain all the stone walls were and asked for submissions for ideas for a wall mural for each department and the training room.

Tom went last. "My tree air filtration system seems to be working to specs so far, but as it is simply purifying existing air, rather than recycling a small amount I can't be sure yet whether it will be enough to provide clean air for the duration of a long space trip without further testing. However, since it is doing such a good job of cleaning the existing air, I managed to rework the charms into permeable barriers that can be installed on doors and windows and got both systems patented yesterday. The company will be rolling them out as soon as they can hire staff to produce them, as they've done some small scale surveys and found a lot of people would be interested in purchasing them, as many witches and wizards are currently living in muggle areas and surrounded by cars, pollution, or soot and dust. In other news, I believe I have a workable prototype extreme cold environment suit. I've been working on a matching helmet that will provide protection from the cold, from unfiltered sunlight and provide breathable air while in space. Once I manage that, we may be able to safely enter the deep-space simulation room when it's finished and experience simulated deep space for ourselves." 

Harry retook the stage after the last speaker was finished. "That's great news! Everyone give yourselves a big round of applause. I know sometimes it seems like we're creeping along and no closer to actually getting to space than we were at the beginning of the year, but really think about all we've accomplished in the past months, and let yourselves be proud of all you've learned and the job you've done in helping us get one step closer."

The kids quite happily cheered for themselves.

"Alright, now for the summer. Show of hands, how many of us here are going to be doing the recycling thing this summer?" Harry counted the hands that raised. "Alright, now how many of you will be able to swing by Grimmauld Place this summer to continue working on your projects? Okay. One last question, is there anyone looking for a short duration summer job helping churn out some items so they'll be ready in time for the quidditch world cup this August? You need to be good with charms, runes and transfiguration and potions. Okay, those of you who raised your hands, see Fred and George when we're done and they'll give you details."

"What are you going to be making?"Astoria asked curiously.

All the prank items we've developed and patented so far. We have trick candies, weird hats, a whole range of World Cup and Britain themed fireworks…"  
"…all kinds of stuff really. We're hoping to open a stand at the World Cup to sell some of them." Fred and George explained.

"Actually, if anyone is good at making stuff like picture frames, t-shirts and mugs and putting photographs onto them, we could use help too. We're going to run a souvenir photo booth at the World Cup, and could use the help." Colin quickly spoke up. 

"Alright then, see Fred and George or Colin and Dennis after we break." Harry corrected himself. "Now, I have a special award to present. Would all our Hufflepuffs stand up for a moment, please?"

Confused, they did so.

"The children rescued from those slavers on Knowhere, the space-port world, have been returned to their families. When Loki questioned them about the odd series of events that allowed them to escape, he realized it might have been our group that did it, as he knew we were going to be visiting soon. He told the children that some sorcerer friends of his helped manage their escape, and they were all very grateful. The sent all of you a message of thanks. It came with its own universal translator built into it, so you should be able to understand what they're saying."

Harry set a cube of some sleek silvery metal on the podium. A holographic 3-D display erupted out of the top, and it showed the children that had been rescued. Standing behind each of them were adults of the same species, obviously their parents.

"To the heroic sorcerers, we give these our thanks for your help."  
"We were very scared, and now we are not."  
"My mother was very sad and was crying very much, but now she is happy once more."  
"Thank you for saving us from those bad men and letting us get away to safety."  
"We will praise your memories for all time."

The last child, a little boy who looked to be a bit smaller and younger than the rest just waved shyly and buried his face against his father's leg.

The adults, not to be left out offered their own thanks.

"You have returned our greatest treasure!"  
"We can never repay your kindness!"  
"My heart was lost, and now it has been found!"  
"Thank you! Thank you!" 

By this point there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Another burst of applause sounded out.

"Hooray for Hufflepuff!"  
"Hip, hip, hooray!"

When things had quieted down some and the sobbing Hufflepuffs had sat back down, Harry continued.

"You'll all be happy to know that these six weren't the only children that were rescued. Heimdall, who can apparently see through space and time, was able to find more sleazy space ports where children were stashed and ready for sale. They recovered another eighty children from all over. Loki, his brother and their friends have been happily doing all they can to dismantle this child slave ring. Space is vast, so we don’t know yet if there's more out there, but for now at least there's eighty six little kids who are back home safe with their parents again thanks to your actions. Well done, Hufflepuff." 

The cheers that broke out this time were the loudest ones yet.

 

The workshops had already been packed up for the summer. Olaf and Brunhilde, Loki's elves, would be coming by that evening to start transferring everything to Grimmauld Place for the summer. They had been left a plate of cookies that Susan Bones had baked as a thank you. Harry swung by Remus' office on his way back to Gryffindor to drop off a stack of papers.

"Hey Remus. Last of the patent applications. Every time we do this I'm always afraid someone got to it first."

"About these you needn't worry. We've had Lucius making inquiries every so often at the patent office once we have search parameters to work with. We send in the applications right after we get our answer, so they're always just approved on the spot since they already know no one else has done whatever it is. The folks down there seem to be looking forward to Lucius' visits anymore. Apparently all your unique applications have made their jobs more interesting."

"Oh. Glad to help." 

Remus laughed and hefted the papers in his hand. "I'll get these sent off to Lucius so he can have them in before the Ministry closes today."

"Okay. I have to go finish packing." 

"Harry. You're leaving tomorrow morning."

"I don't have much to do, not in my dorm, anyway. Packing up my workroom was much more troublesome."

"Did I tell you we finished clearing the first of the landfills?"

"Yeah? Cool."

"We've cleared out a section of the second one. There'll be room for whatever garbage gets dredged from the Thames. You'll be starting that in a week, correct?"

"Yeah. Gives everyone a chance to reconnect with their families first. Ron's already worried about his mum trying to forcibly keep him home as is. If he had to leave for most of the day the first day he was back, she'd likely show up and drag him off by his ear, goblins or no goblins."

"Yes. Molly is a very…dedicated mother. The reason I mentioned the empty landfill is that's actually going to be the location of the World Cup this summer. When that's over, Sirius was thinking of building a corporate office there. The ministry has been trying to seize the land again. That Dolores Umbridge is a menace."

"Who?"

"Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. She was the one behind trying to steal the business in the first place, but she was stopped. The moment she heard the landfill was cleared she tried to seize it for the ministry. She argued that everyone agreed the business was his and couldn't simply be taken from him, but now that it's cleared and there's no more work to be had there it should belong to the ministry to build villages on. Sirius had to make a big ruckus in the Ministry to get her to back down again. It turns out no one was happy with the idea of the ministry simply seizing land or businesses willy-nilly. Who knew?"

"Watch it there, Remus, your sarcasm is getting lethal."

"I'll try to rein myself in." he replied dryly. "In any case, she was forced to back down again, but that's left her with a rather enormous grudge against your godfather. But, no matter…he has a bit of a grudge against her as well. But, like I was saying, he's thinking of building corporate offices at the site. So far he's been running things out of Grimmauld Place, but as you kids are getting older, and a couple of you will be graduating this year, he realized he didn't necessarily want his home filled day and night with the company. This summer, it's no problem. There aren't too big a number of people, and no one is going to be there all the time, but he expects that to change, and thought he should probably do something to fix that before it became a problem."

"So…we're going to have our own Cape Canaveral? That's brilliant!"

"Yes, we thought so as well. We're supposed to have a meeting when you all get home to help design the place. There has to be public spaces for the investors, ministry inspectors and the general public to access, there has to be factory spaces to manufacture various products we're going to be marketing, and then of course the R & D department needs to have ample space to work, study and build." 

"We'll need a spot just for mission control and a large enough space to build a full-sized ship when it comes to that. We might need specially shielded rooms to launch from too. I was thinking about it, and portkeys and apparation basically open a tunnel of sorts that you travel through. Well, here on earth, that's fine, but if one end is out in deep space that could be a problem. It'd be a damn shame if we were blasting big chunks of our breathable air into deep space, or letting in the chill of the void every time we launched a ship…and then I began wondering if we should build a space station once we get the mining operation underway. Maybe we could design specialty builder robots to do it for us…" Harry got lost in his imagination for a moment and then forced himself back on track "and then we could build our full-sized ships out in space so we could send them out without damaging the earth by opening tunnels to deep space on it." 

"That is something to think about… We'll figure something out. Think about what all you'll need in terms of space, equipment, how to divide things up and we can pool our ideas at the meeting." 

"Alright. I'll send everyone a message so they can offer some input as well. Each department knows what they need better than I do." 

He sent off a quick message to everyone on his PDA as he headed upstairs. Once in his dorm, he spotted Dean packing the last of his stuff. Dean when he saw him gave him a largish parchment with a drawing on it.

"What's this?"

"Luna told us last week that we should probably design our dream office so it would be ready when it was needed. This is what we came up with. We also have murals, photographs, sculptures for a fountain that we'd like to use as part of the decorating, and a design theme for the whole building" he added handing over a folder. Harry flipped through the folder. There were sketches of a reception area, conference room, a cafeteria, as well as whimsical designs for the outside of the building.

"These are great. You guys are really organized."

"We do try. Might as well put all those frou-frou college classes to work."

"That's the spirit. What's in the rest of the folders?"

"I'm getting to that. This here is for the total biosphere and environments groups., and the enchanters group. That's their dream office." Dean laughed. 

When Harry opened the folder and began flipping through the pictures he understood why. It was very different from the plain stone walled rooms they currently had. The bottom of the picture showed the same long tables setup they currently had, but above that were whimsical cloud platforms that were individual work areas/offices for each of the enchanters, with cloud-platform lifts to take them up and down to them. The walls looked like open sky, fitting with the whole theme. The communications group, which was the next folder, had a sleek, modern, fairly muggle design in comparison. Lots of big screens, separate cubicles, with some large group spaces for building new machines and doing upgrades. They had also included what they'd like mission control to look like. 

"Wow. Everyone seems to have really been planning for this. I didn't even know about the corporate offices."

"Neither did we, but everyone realized we were going to need someplace to go once we were all done with Hogwarts, so we started thinking about what we wanted." 

"I guess I'd best get to work then. I seem to be the only one without a dream office design all ready."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is it for part 2. Part 3 will probably start being posted in a couple of days after I edit what I already have. Thanks for sticking with me! Your comments are greatly appreciated.


End file.
